TV watching on tablets to hit three hours a month by 2014

So you have a tablet. It’s great right? You can do all sorts of cool stuff on it. But could it ever hope to replace your TV when it comes to viewing video content.

I mean sure, it’s great for the odd YouTube clip, and it’ll just about do for series when nothing else is available, but serious viewing needs a serious screen. Right? Think again.

Tech research company Juniper Research reckons we’re increasingly falling in love with mobile TV. So much so that we’ll spend three hours a month watching TV on our tablets by 2014.

Juniper Research reckons as people become more used to viewing content on tablets, and a wider range of content is made available, the hours spent watching mobile TV on them will increase. It doesn’t hurt that tablets are so easy and intuitive to use either.

This increase will reportedly be most apparent in North America where there is already significant mobile TV usage, and where internet TV services such as Hulu and Netflix are extremely popular.

Another driver for this growth, says Juniper Research, is the continued integration of mobile services into pay-TV packages.

Tablets can improve people’s viewing experiences when used alongside traditional television by allowing them to access extra information such as plot synopses and actor biographies. They also allow people on catch up on anything they might have missed when away from home, extending the reach of traditional TV services.

According to Juniper Research analyst Charlotte Miller, “Consumers are already accustomed to timeshifting thanks to DVRs such as TiVo and Sky+; what mobile TV allows them to do is placeshift. This allows users to watch their pay-TV content anytime, anywhere and on any device — the TV experience is no longer confined to the home.”