Almost all of my TV viewing is via time shift via the internet or Sky+. But I’m in a minority in the UK. The web is failing to make a significant dent on traditional TV viewing habits. At least that’s what the latest numbers from BARB and Nielsen tell us.

According to TV number crunchers writing in the latest bulletin from BARB (PDF), time-shift viewing accounts for less than 6 per cent of total view in July 2009 up from 1.2 per cent in July 2005.

BARB doesn’t monitor internet TV viewing habits but a recent Ipos Mori survey commissioned on its behalf calculated that 10 per cent of adults had watched TV via the internet in the last week for approximately an hour and three-quarters. Scaled across the population this gives a viewing time for all adults of 0.17 hours or approximately 10 minutes per week. The average viewing figures for traditional TV over this period was 26 hours per week.

The situation is more extreme in the US according to Nielsen’s Three Screen Report. Figures issued for Q3 for the previous 12 months show that almost 99 per cent of all video content watched in the US was via tradition TV. DVR and web TV watching is growing but has yet to make a significant dent in the overhaul viewing numbers.

Several people in my network commented last night on Sunday evening how Twitter has been used as a conversational channel during X Factor series. TV producer Gary Hayes writing in The Guardian last week (via @markpinsent) suggested that in future social media will drive TV audiences.