Television 'a wallpaper medium'

Britons are not spending more time watching TV, surfing the internet and talking on their mobile phones - they are doing all three simultaneously and becoming increasingly inattentive to television.

Research experts at the Henley Centre say television is becoming a wallpaper medium - on in the background - and viewers are not giving their full concentration to it as they did in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, when families would gather round the box to watch shows such as The Generation Game, Blue Peter or even the news.

Figures released by Ofcom yesterday - which show that consumption of all media had risen and that our obsession with the internet had not reduced the amount of time we spend watching TV - hide underlying changes in the way we consume media, says the Henley Centre.

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