We know what you do at 8.48pm - it’s not watching D...

There’s bad news peak-time TV shows this evening like DIY SOS and Coronation Street - it looks likely that viewers will drift off to scroll through Rightmove instead.

That’s because Wednesday evenings at 8.48pm is the precise minute when the portal enjoys its peak usage each week.

In hourly terms it’s between 8pm and 9pm on Wednesdays, and using Google Analytics it’s worked out that 8.48pm is the actual minute where the portal is most in demand.

By contrast the quietest hour of the week is 4am to 5am on Mondays.

And in the portal’s usual pre-Christmas publicity drive, it says that while December is usually the quietest month for home-hunting traffic starts to rise again from Boxing Day onwards.

Last Christmas, page views increased by 231 per cent between Christmas Day and January 2, and the single busiest day that period was Sunday December 30, as people started to think about moving in the New Year.

“We know just how obsessed the nation is with property, but to see such precise consistency in terms of browsing times is really quite remarkable” says Rightmove director and market analyst Miles Shipside.

“It may be that the Wednesday peak of 8.48pm coincides with the final advert break of many TV shows. A few years back the busiest time of day was lunchtime but as mobile usage increased this has changed to property lovers revisiting us every evening” he adds.

“As we move into December we see people start to get distracted … but once the celebrations are in full swing it doesn’t take long before traffic rises again. Some may realise their home is too small or they finally decide that next year will be the year they take on an exciting project and buy a fixer upper property.”