Traditional TV viewing in the UK has seen its sharpest ever decline over the past year, according to broadcasting watchdog OFCOM
BBC One remains the only channel to reach more than half of the viewing population every week.
A similar decline is evident in the average time that viewers spend watching broadcast TV each day – down from 2 hours 59 minutes in 2021, to 2 hours 38 minutes in 2022
For the first time, there is evidence of a significant decline in average daily broadcast TV viewing among ‘core’ older audiences (aged 65+) – a drop of 8% year on year, and down 6% on pre-pandemic levels.[3]
Data also suggests that older viewers are diversifying their viewing and becoming more likely to take up streaming services, although household take-up of these services overall appears to be plateauing.
The proportion of over-64s subscribing to Disney+, for example, increased from 7% in 2022 to 12% in 2023.
Children and young adults under 25 have collectively decreased their average daily broadcast viewing by 73% since 2012. For the first time, 16-24-year-olds watched less broadcast TV on average than children aged 4-15 (39 minutes per day compared to 41).
Evidence suggests they’re tuning in for only one or two programmes per day, mainly for genres such as sport and popular entertainment or reality programming.
Social video platforms remain a major part of youngsters’ daily media habits. In March 2023, 5.2 million 15-24-year-olds visited TikTok, spending an average of 58 minutes per day on the platform.
This was followed by Snapchat (52 minutes), YouTube (48 minutes) and Instagram (25 minutes).
‘Snackable’ short-form video content lasting less than 10 minutes is particularly popular. Nearly seven in ten 15-24s claim to watch short-from videos daily, with YouTube the most popular destination for this kind of content.
Today’s viewers and listeners have an ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet of broadcasting and online content to choose from, and there’s more competition for our attention than ever.
“Our traditional broadcasters are seeing steep declines in viewing to their scheduled, live programmes – including among typically loyal older audiences – and soaps and news programmes don’t have the mass-audience pulling power they once had.
“But despite this, public service broadcasters are still unrivalled in bringing the nation together at important cultural and sporting moments, while their on-demand players are seeing positive growth as they digitalise their services to meet audience needs.” said Yih-Choung Teh, Group Director, Strategy and Research at Ofcom
