The battle of the TV remote as families fight for control

by Julia Pearlman, Brand Republic 20-Jun-05, 12:00

LONDON - Families are hiding their remote controls and even using it to whack each other over the heads, as 1.5m households admit the gadget causes relentless arguments about who has control over the television, according to a survey out today.

ITV's Teletext asked 2,000 people about their remote control grievances and found that a third of the UK admit to regularly arguing over the remote control, with 18- to 29-year-olds suffering the most from remote control rage.

The survey showed that couch potatoes argue the most about channels being changed without asking, with 3% stating the most annoying grievance was other people wearing down the remote's batteries. Losing the remote control angered 45% of respondents the most, with messing about with the volume at 34%, having the remote thrown at you 19% and at the bottom of the list, getting food on the remote.

Residents are going to great lengths to remain in control of the remote with 26% of people hiding it, 16% getting up to block the TV signal and 8% removing the batteries to prevent it from working.

Dads seem to have the upper hand when it comes to being in command of the remote with 34% hanging on to it, but women are fighting back, it seems, with 12% starting more arguments compared with 7% of men.

Neil Johnson, launch director for Teletext on ITV, said: "The remote may be a small gadget but it has a big impact on the living room. The research has shown that it inspires every emotion from anxiety to fury and is the cause of some very interesting -- and odd -- bouts of behaviour."

Teletext on ITV launched today allowing viewers on Sky and Freeview to access teletext on all ITV digital channels.

Meanwhile, the British Potato Council phrase has begun a campaign to have the phrase "couch potatoes" banned for being derogatory. The organisation is staging a demonstration outside Parliament today.

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