David Farnor | On 13, Nov 2017

For decades, TV has always been served up to us in blocks of time by a select number of channels. Now, the rise of online streaming means that we have TV served up to us by a growing number of platforms at all times of the day. With competition for attention and exclusives increasingly heated, and with the market becoming more fragmented, there’s more content being created than disposable time to watch it. While the phrase “Peak TV” has been thrown about for some time now to describe the glut of entertainment we can now pick and choose from, one new survey suggests that some viewers are getting overwhelmed by the sheer volume.

The latest report from Hub Entertainment Research found that 49 per cent of respondents (from a group aged 16 to 74 who watch at least five hours of telly a week) agree that “there are so many TV programs to choose from that it’s hard to know where to start”. This is up from 42 per cent in 2014, and more than the 19 per cent who disagreed that there were too many shows.

In a separated question, 53 per cent said that they thought there was about the right amount of shows, while 35 per cent said that there were too manny series.

“Over one-third is a lot of people,” Hub principal Jon Giegengack tells Variety. “The SVOD services are investing all this money in original content but at some point the volume of content defeats itself.”

Netflix alone saw 39 per cent of people say there were too many shows to choose from, although 50 per cent said that there was the right amount of shows.

The challenge, then, is perhaps less about content and more about discovering the content right for you. 73 per cent of viewers said that most of their total TV watching time is spent viewing series they really like, although that’s down from 81 per cent in previous reports. Only 12 per cent, meanwhile, said that they would try a new show if it looks only slightly interesting, while 34 per cent said they would only try a new show if they were pretty confident they would like it.

Struggling to find what’s good to watch online? Check out our guides to the best TV shows on Netflix you may not have seen, best box sets on Sky and the top series on Amazon Prime Video – or keep up to date with our latest reviews across all platforms here.

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