The UK communications and media regulator, Ofcom, has today published its Media Nations 2025 report, with YouTube overtaking ITV to become the UK’s most watched service, behind only the BBC.
The latest figures come just days after Ofcom issued a bleak warning that public service broadcasting (PSB) is becoming an “endangered species” faced with competition from YouTube and other VoD/streaming services.
The new report further reveals how linear TV viewing continues to decline in favour of broadband-based video streaming platforms (particularly YouTube and Netflix), although broadcast TV currently still accounts for the majority (56%) of in-home viewing (down from 57% last year).
Individuals aged 4+ spent on average 4 hours 30 minutes per day watching video content at home in 2024, one minute less than in 2023, with the BBC accounting for nearly a fifth (19%) of all in-home video viewing (viewing via wifi network), compared to YouTube with 14%, ITV with 12%, Netflix on 8%, other non-PSB broadcasters 7%, Channel 4 and Sky, 6%; and TikTok and 5 both at 4%.
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The YouTube figure could well be even higher as the data in the report captures YouTube consumption via home WiFi (broadband) only, so viewing outside the home or viewing via mobile networks is not included. Barb’s Out of Home Viewing Tracker from July 2024 showed that 6% of those who use YouTube while at home claimed to never connect to the home WiFi to watch it.
Nonetheless, the TV set remains central to video viewing in the home, with 84% of in-home video viewing taking place on it, although people also spent 4% less time watching broadcast TV on TV sets than in 2023.
However, 7% did not watch any PSB content on TV sets in Q1 2025. They tended to be younger and less likely than the average population to have traditional TV platforms like Freeview, cable or satellite, opting for TV delivered over the internet. They watched significantly less broadcast content and any video in the home overall, mainly viewing YouTube and other VSPs (78% of their total in-home video viewing). SVoD/AVoD viewing took up the next largest proportion of their viewing (17%). Netflix was their most viewed SVoD/AVoD but they watched less of it than the non-PSB viewers group in Q1 2023.
Ed Leighton, Ofcom’s Interim Group Director for Strategy and Research, said:
“Scheduled TV is increasingly alien to younger viewers, with YouTube the first port of call for many when they pick up the TV remote. But we’re also seeing signs that older adults are turning to the platform as part of their daily media diet too.
Public service broadcasters are recognising this shift – moving to meet audiences in the online spaces where they increasingly spend their time. But we need to see even more ambition in this respect to ensure that public service media that audiences value survives long into the future.”
Elsewhere, the proportion of UK households receiving any subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service in Q1 2025 continues to plateau, and was at the same level as it was (at 68%) in 2021. Some two-thirds of UK households subscribe to at least one of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+. Netflix remains the most subscribed-to service, present in almost six in ten UK households and accounting for nearly half of total SVoD viewing in 2024.
