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

Just 48 percent of young audiences tuned in in an average week last year, down from 76 percent in 2018. Children aged 4-15 are tuning out at a similar rate, with only 55 percent watching broadcast TV each week in 2023, compared to 81 percent in 2018.

Overall, the weekly reach of traditional TV fell by a record amount in the last year, Ofcom said in a statement yesterday.

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 percent 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.

Other findings include the following:

TV and Video

• Overall, people in the United Kingdom (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 percent since 2022). This was primarily driven by an increase in daily viewing to video-sharing platforms (up 12 percent to 49 minutes) and to broadcasters’ video-on-demand services, such as iPlayer and ITVX (up 29 percent to 20 minutes).
• TV screens are rapidly becoming more popular for watching YouTube content. Thirty-four per cent of time spent watching YouTube at home is now on a TV set – up from 29 percent in 2022. This increases to 45 percent among children aged 4-15 – up from 36 percent in 2022.
• Daily viewing to subscription video-on-demand services saw more marginal growth in 2023 (up 6 percent 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.
• 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, with the BBC’s and ITV’s coverage together averaging 15.1 million viewers that day.

Radio

• The first quarter of 2024 saw the highest number of weekly radio listeners across all devices in the past 20 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 is down to commercial radio’s continued success — just over seven in 10 people aged 15+ tune into commercial stations at least once a week (70.4 percent) compared to 55.6 percent for BBC stations.
• 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 percent) of all live radio hours, mostly through smart speakers.

“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,” observed Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s Director of Market Intelligence..