UK viewers are watching less “traditional” TV than ever before according to regulator Ofcom’s Media Nations 2023 report.
The research found that the proportion of viewers who tune in to traditional broadcast TV each week has dropped from 83 per cent in 2021 to 79 per cent in 2022.
BBC One remains the only channel to reach more than half of the viewing population every week, said the report.
Time spent watching broadcast TV has also fallen, down from 2 hours 59 minutes in 2021, to 2 hours 38 minutes in 2022, a drop of 12 per cent.
The report’s findings suggest a significant decline in average daily broadcast TV viewing among ‘core’ older audiences (aged 65+) – a drop of 8 per cent year on year, and down 6 per cent on pre-pandemic levels. It posits that older viewers are turning to streaming services to find what they want to watch, with the proportion of over-64s subscribing to Disney+, for example, up from 7 per cent in 2022 to 12 per cent in 2023.
Despite the continuing decline of traditional broadcast TV viewing, BBC One (20 per cent) and ITV1 (13 per cent) are still the top two first destinations for viewers when they turn on their TV, with Netflix coming in third (6 per cent).
In addition, watching broadcasters’ content – either live, on recorded playback or streamed on-demand – still accounts for the greatest proportion of all time spent each day watching TV and video (60 per cent, or 2 hours 41 minutes per person, per day).
“Today’s viewers […] 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,” said Yih-Choung Teh, group director, Strategy and Research at Ofcom.
“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.”
