A recent Ofcom study has highlighted a major shift in how younger generations consume media: fewer than half of 16–24-year-olds now watch broadcast television in a typical week. This represents a historic low and underscores a profound change in viewing habits among young audiences.
Ofcom’s annual survey of national media habits found that just 48% of 16–24-year-olds watched broadcast TV at least once in an average week in the last year, down sharply from 76% in 2018. A similar decline appears among children: only 55% of 4–15-year-olds watched broadcast TV weekly in 2023, compared with 81% in 2018.
The fall in broadcast TV viewing is not limited to the youngest viewers. Viewership among middle-aged adults (45–54) dropped more quickly than before, falling from 89% to 84% in a single year. By contrast, older audiences remain strongly attached to traditional television: around 95% of people aged 65 and over still watch broadcast TV each week.
Younger viewers are not only tuning into broadcast TV less often, they are spending far less time doing so. Among 16–24-year-olds, average daily time spent watching broadcast TV is only 33 minutes, with live TV accounting for just 20 minutes. Instead, this age group devotes substantially more time to video-sharing platforms—about 1 hour 33 minutes per day on services such as TikTok and YouTube.
Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s Director of Market Intelligence, observed that Gen Z and Generation Alpha are accustomed to swiping and streaming rather than channel surfing. He noted they favor the flexibility, immediacy and choice provided by on-demand services, spending more than three hours daily watching video content overall but only a small slice of that time on live broadcast TV.
Despite the decline in traditional broadcast viewing, total time spent watching TV and video at home rose in 2023, averaging 4 hours and 31 minutes per day. That increase was driven largely by viewing on video-sharing platforms and by broadcasters’ video-on-demand services.
The TV set remains the primary device for watching content at home, accounting for 84% of TV and video viewing in 2023. Notably, viewers are increasingly using TV screens to watch YouTube: 34% of YouTube viewing time at home now happens on a television, up from 29% in 2022.
Although live broadcast TV is losing ground with younger audiences, it continues to play an important role for major national and international events. The most-watched programmes of 2023 included New Year’s Eve fireworks (12.1 million viewers), the Coronation of the King and Queen Consort (12 million viewers), and the Eurovision Song Contest (10.1 million viewers).
Macrae added that while live TV no longer commands the universal appeal it once did, it remains vital for bringing people together around significant moments.
In contrast to the downward trend for broadcast television, radio listening has reached a 20-year high. The first quarter of 2024 recorded the largest number of weekly radio listeners across all devices in two decades, with just under 50 million people tuning in. Commercial radio has been especially effective at attracting listeners: over 70% of those aged 15 and above listen to commercial stations at least once a week.
As these consumption patterns evolve, broadcasters, content creators and platforms will need to continue adapting to younger audiences’ preferences for flexible, on-demand formats while maintaining the strengths of live programming for major shared events.
(Photo by Aleks Dorohovich)
See also: Ofcom tightens rules to combat foreign scam calls
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