RESEARCH SHOWS 56% OF NEW YEARS DAY TV SHOWS WILL BE REPEATS
· • Christmas 2021 saw a 324% increase in downloads of Monopoly, Taboo, Cluedo, Clue, Jumanji and The Game of Life, and others from Marmalade Game Studio games, fuelled by ‘boredom’ in watching TV repeats
New analysis* from the UK’s leading digital board games publisher Marmalade Game Studio, whose games include Monopoly, Cluedo, Clue, Jumanji and The Game of Life, reveals 56% of the programmes this New Year’s Day on BBC 1, BBC2, ITV 1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 will be repeats. The channels will show 140 programmes on the day and 78 will be repeats.
On New Year’s Eve, the five channels will show 125 programmes of which 59 (47%) will be repeats.
Over the two days, Marmalade Game Studio’s analysis reveals that 52% of the programmes aired across the five channels will be repeats. The corresponding figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 are 8%, 52%, 44%, 62% and 78% respectively.
Between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Marmalade Game Studio saw a 324% increase in downloads of its games Monopoly, Taboo, Cluedo, Clue, Jumanji and The Game of Life, when compared to the average number for a typical three-day period in the previous six months. The publisher believes ‘boredom’ in watching TV repeats was a key factor for this increase in downloads – its analysis revealed that 202 of the 403 programmes across the five channels over Christmas were repeats.
Michael Willis, co-CEO at Marmalade Game Studio, said: “With Covid-19 cases rising, more people will be staying in this year New Year’s Eve and Day, but with so many repeats on TV we expect to see a big increase in people downloading our games. They are a great way to tackle boredom and bring families together, especially since we introduced a new Bubble feature, which more than a million families have signed up to. This helps people stay in touch by video chat, allowing gamers to add friends and family to group chats, start games from these, and video chat whilst playing.”
Marmalade Game Studio is the UK’s leading digital board game publisher, and it recently secured a £22.5 million investment from private equity firm LDC to support recruitment and the development of new games, has seen revenues more than double in the last three years.
Marmalade Game Studio, which has offices in London and Lisbon, has managed to boost staff numbers from 28 to 65 while its range of games which includes Monopoly and Cluedo has expanded from 3 to 10 titles with more planned.