For the first time, less than half of 16-24-year-olds (Gen Z) are now watching broadcast TV in an average week, according to Ofcom’s annual study into the nation’s media habits.

Just 48 per cent of young audiences tuned in during an average week last year, down from 76 per cent in 2018. Children aged 4-15 are tuning out at a similar rate, with only 55 per cent watching broadcast TV each week in 2023, compared to 81 per cent in 2018. Overall, the weekly reach of traditional TV fell by a record amount in the last year.

The decline in weekly reach among middle-aged viewers (45-54s) also accelerated, falling from 89 per cent to 84 per cent in a single year. In contrast, there has been relatively little change among loyal older audiences aged 65+, with around 95 per cent continuing to tune in to broadcast TV each week.

Younger audiences aged 16-24 aren’t just watching broadcast TV less frequently, they’re also watching for shorter periods at only 33 minutes each day – down 16 per cent year on year. Of this, a mere 20 minutes is spent watching live TV.

In comparison, they’re spending three times as long each day (1 hour 33 minutes) watching video-sharing platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.

YouTube taking over the TV?

Overall, people in the UK watched more TV and video content at home in 2023, averaging 4 hours and 31 minutes a day (an increase of 6 minutes/2 per cent since 2022). This was primarily driven by an increase in daily viewing to video-sharing platforms (up 12 per cent to 49 minutes) and to broadcasters’ VoD services, such as iPlayer and ITVX (up 29 per cent to 20 minutes).

The TV set remains at the heart of household viewing, accounting for 84 per cent of TV and video content watched at home in 2023. TV screens are also rapidly becoming more popular for watching YouTube content. Over a third (34 per cent) of time spent watching YouTube at home is now on a TV set – up from 29 per cent in 2022. This increases to 45 per cent among children aged 4-15 – up from 36 per cent in 2022.

Average daily minutes of video viewing at home, by age

Daily viewing to SVoD services saw more marginal growth in 2023 (up 6 per cent to 38 minutes). Netflix remains the most popular service – watched for an average of 21 minutes per person per day, and accounting for more than half of all SVoD viewing.

Six films appear the list of the top 10 most-watched SVoD programmes, with Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (7.5 million viewers) taking the top spot and Elemental (6.5 million viewers) coming in second. The first episode of the Beckham documentary ranks third with 5.8 million viewers.

With live broadcast TV still dominating the viewing diets of the over-45s, big TV ‘moments’ capturing live national and international events rank highly in 2023’s list of most-watched programmes, including the New Year’s Eve Fireworks (12.1 million viewers), The Coronation of The King and Queen Camilla (12 million viewers) and the Eurovision Song Contest (10.1 million viewers).

The most-watched event so far in 2024 has been the UEFA Euro 2024 men’s final between England and Spain on July 14th, with the BBC’s and ITV’s coverage together averaging 15.1 million viewers that day.

Gen Z and Alpha are used to swiping and streaming, not flipping through broadcast TV channels. They crave the flexibility, immediacy and choice that on-demand services offer, spending over three hours a day watching video, but only 20 minutes of live TV. It’s no surprise that the traditional TV is fast becoming a device of choice to watch YouTube.

“But while live TV may not have the universal pull it once did, its role in capturing those big moments that bring the nation together remains vital,” noted Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s Director of Market Intelligence.

Radio listening hits 20-year high

The first quarter of 2024 saw the highest number of weekly radio listeners across all devices in the past twenty years (just under 50 million). Listening time is also up year on year to an average of 20.5 hours per week.

Much of this growth is down to commercial radio’s continued success in attracting new audiences and increasing its average hours per listener. Just over seven in 10 people aged 15+ tune into commercial stations at least once a week (70.4 per cent) compared to 55.6 per cent for BBC stations. Commercial radio revenue continued to grow in 2023, up 2 per cent overall to £667 million.

After live radio, the next most popular type of audio is streamed music from services such as Spotify, Apple and Amazon, with half listening to these services at least once a week (50 per cent). The proportion of adults listening to podcasts each week has almost doubled in the past five years to one in every five.

Online radio listening continues to grow steadily, overtaking analogue radio (AM/FM) for the first time this year and now accounting for over a quarter (28 per cent) of all live radio hours, mostly through smart speakers.

Responding to the report, Richard Halton, UK Managing Director, Roku, commented: “This year’s Ofcom report shows that online platforms are driving the increase in TV and video viewing, reinforcing our view that over time all TV will be streamed. The growth of ad-supported services demonstrates the increasingly important role that value plays in consumers’ entertainment line-up, and we’re committed to creating products that deliver great value to viewers. Given that over two-thirds of viewers said they’re satisfied with the PSB services, it also demonstrates the enduring worth that consumers place in our national broadcasters, and we continue to develop local content partnerships to help users find and stream the content they love.”

WALES

People in Wales watched more TV and video content at home in 2023, averaging 5 hours and 4 minutes, an increase of 20 minutes since 2022, and higher than the UK average of 4 hours and 31 minutes. Viewers in Wales spent more time watching catch-up services from the Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) in Wales, such as iPlayer, ITVX and Clic, than the rest of the UK (26 minutes per day, six minutes longer than the UK average.)

In line with the UK trend, daily broadcast TV viewing continued to fall to 2 hours and 42 minutes. This was three minutes less than in 2022, putting the average Wales viewing time lower than Northern Ireland for the first time. Except for Northern Ireland, Wales had the smallest decline of all the nations (1.9 per cent), 3.7 percentage points smaller than the average UK decrease.

According to Ofcom’s Media Nations report, younger audiences (16-24) in Wales also watch the least amount of broadcast TV at an average of 37 minutes per day, a fall of 21.5 per cent since 2022. However, there was relatively little change among older audiences aged 55+ in 2023 who continue to watch more TV than any other age group at an average of 4 hours and 59 minutes per day.

In Wales the proportion of households with a subscription streaming service grew with 70 per cent receiving at least one service in the first quarter of 2024, up from 63 per cent a year before. Netflix remains the most popular service, with 68 per cent of people saying that they’ve used the service. More than eight in 10 viewers (84 per cent) in Wales with an internet connection at home had a connected TV, higher than the UK average (73 per cent). TV users in Wales were more likely to use an internet connection to watch streaming services (eg Netflix and Prime Video, often found on the menu or home screen) on their smart TV than in the UK overall (51 per cent compared to 42 per cent).

Trusted and accurate news 

For audiences in Wales ‘trusted and accurate UK news’ is considered to be one of the most important areas for PSBs to deliver to society overall, with almost half (48 per cent) ranking it in their top three. This was followed by offering ‘a wide range of different types of programmes’ (43 per cent), ‘programmes that help me to understand what is going on in the world today’ (28 per cent) and ‘programmes that are relevant to me’ (28 per cent).

When it comes to sourcing news in general, BBC One was the most-used news source in Wales by people over 16 (47 per cent), followed by ITV Cymru Wales (34 per cent). Facebook was the third most popular source (32 per cent). No newspapers featured in the top ten sources of news.

A nation of rugby viewers 

Live national sport remains hugely popular with audience in Wales with both the Rugby World Cup and the Six Nations featuring in the top 10 most watched programmes. The World Cup group match between Wales and Australia, on ITV Cymru Wales, attracted an average of 610,000 viewers on ITV Cymru, while the Scotland-Wales Six Nations match was watched by 515,000 viewers on BBC Cymru Wales.

“Audiences in Wales are making the most of the many choices they have to consume media content. Yet, live, recorded and catch-up broadcast TV still has considerable appeal for many viewers in Wales, despite the continued growth and competition of streaming and specialist services,” said Elinor Williams, Principal, Regulatory Affairs, Ofcom Wales.

BBC Radio listening highest in Wales

Radio listening also remains strong in Wales with almost nine in ten adults (89.2 per cent) tuning in each week, higher than the UK average. And as well as radio reaching more people in Wales, they are also listening for longer. People in Wales listen for 20.9 hours per week, compared to the UK average of 20.5 hours.

Over half of people in Wales (57.2 per cent) listen to BBC radio stations at least once a week, higher than the UK average of 55.6 per cent. Radio 2 was the most listened to radio station in Wales. Radio Cymru was among the top five stations listened to in north Wales while Radio Wales was among the most popular with listeners in south Wales. Reach of BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru increased to its highest levels since spring 2022. By the end of March this year 348,000 were listening to Radio Wales each week with 113,000 listening to Radio Cymru.

Online listening continues to grow steadily and accounts for a quarter (24.5 per cent) of all radio listening. Spotify Premium remains popular and accounted for the majority (63 per cent) of total time spent streaming music in Wales, higher than the average across Great Britain as a whole (58 per cent)

Other posts by :

1. SES announces €0.25c dividend
2. Russia “blinding and destroying” German satellites
3. Bank: AST, Starlink, Kuiper targeting $200bn market
4. Rivada: Is no news good news?
5. SES celebrates Intelsat acquisition
6. Pakistan halts broadband direct-from satellite
7. India stymies Starlink launch
8. Starlink, AST SpaceMobile race for cellular consumers
9. Trouble ahoy for foreign D2D satellites over India?

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Catch Up, Consumer Behaviour, Digital Radio, Premium, Research, VOD

Tags: Gen Z, iPlayer, ITVX, Ofcom, radio, youtube