As part of its annual Media Nations report, Ofcom has found that the generation gap in the UK’s media habits has reached an all-time high.
It found that TV viewers aged 16-24 spend less than an hour (53 minutes) in front of broadcast TV in an average day – a fall of two-thirds in the last ten years.
In contrast, those aged 65 and over still spend around a third of their waking day watching broadcast TV, sitting down for almost six hours (5 hours and 50 minutes) daily. This is actually slightly higher than a decade ago, said Ofcom.
According to the regulator, the changes in younger adults’ habits reflect the soaring popularity of the global streaming services.
Around a fifth of homes (5.2 million) subscribe to all three of the most popular platforms, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus, states the report.
Some nine in ten 18 to 24-year-olds go straight for the streamers when looking for something to watch, with Netflix the most popular destination.
However, six in ten (59 per cent) 55-64-year-olds and 76 per cent of those aged 65+ still turn to TV channels first.
Overall, 82 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they had used a public service broadcaster’s on-demand service in the past six months, roughly the same proportion who said they used at least one streaming service (83 per cent). Six in ten (59 per cent) viewers said they are using BVoD platforms to watch channels or programmes live at the time they are broadcast.
As a result, the average time spent watching services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and All 4 increased to 15 minutes per day, up by three minutes per person per day, said Ofcom.
Speaking about the findings, Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence, said: “The streaming revolution is stretching the TV generation gap, creating a stark divide in the viewing habits of younger and older people.
“Traditional broadcasters face tough competition from online streaming platforms, which they’re partly meeting through the popularity of their own on-demand player apps, while broadcast television is still the place to go for big events that bring the nation together such as the Euro final or the Jubilee celebrations.”
