The cost of living crisis saw more UK viewers flock to the free video-on-demand services offered by British broadcasters last year - at the expense of the US streaming giants.
New data shows the streamed offerings of the homegrown channels, including BBC iPlayer, Channel 4 and ITVX, grew faster than the global streamers during 2024. And the figures, from official TV industry source BARB, reveals that young people in particular were turning away from subscription services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+.
The BARB data for 2024 shows that the broadcast streamers’ share of viewer minutes grew by 12%, against a 4% decline on 2023 for the streamers, which also include Apple TV, Discovery+ and Paramount+. For viewers aged 16-34, the share of viewing time held by the UK channels, which also include Five, Sky and UKTV, increased by 8% while the subscription streamers’ slice was down by 2% year-on-year.
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ITV)The top four shows appealing to those younger viewers were the BBC’s EastEnders (2.6bn), ITV’s Love Island (1.6bn), Sky’s Premier League coverage (1.6bn) and Channel 4’s Married at First Sight UK (1.5bn). When looking at minutes of viewing time for individuals, the combined catch-up services offered by the traditional broadcasters rose by a whopping 23%, versus 6% of growth for the US streamers - who suffered a 1% decline in the 16-34 age category. Overall the channels’ shows took a 67% slice of all viewer on-demand minutes compared with the streamers’ 33%. Total viewer minutes in the UK were put at 1.2trillion for the BBC, 739billion for ITV, 520billion for Netflix, 361billion for Channel 4 and 166billion for Amazon Prime.
It is thought that factors affecting the downturn for the US streamers include the ongoing cost of living crisis - meaning households are cutting back on TV subscriptions, especially amid widespread price hikes - plus a preference from UK viewers for more British-leaning programming, a perceived move by Netflix into more mainstream programming making its content less distinctive, and the launch of Freely, which allows viewers another way to stream content from the UK’s public service broadcasters for free.
The trend has continued into 2025, with January data showing that the channels’ share of streamed viewer minutes grew by 21%, versus a -1% decline for the big US players - rising to a 15% decline when looking at the 16-34 age group. Channel 4 has seen the sharpest rise with 14% more minutes of viewing in January compared with last year, the best performance of all the commercial channels . One C4 insider said: “It’s clear that the type of programming offered by the broadcaster-run streaming services resonate deeply with British viewers. Put simply, the success of noisy shows such as Merseyside Detectives, Married At First Sight and To Catch a Copper underline what public service broadcasters uniquely offer - content which says something about Britain and reflects the national conversation.”
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Cr. Giles Keyte / Courtesy of Netflix)Earlier this month it was reported that Neflix had become the most-watched service in the UK for 12 weeks during the autumn of 2024, beating BBC1 for the first time. The success was described as the "unseating of Britain’s most popular channel" with Netflix’s average audience reach standing at 43.2m, compared with BBC1’s 42.3m. At the time the BBC claimed it was “meaningless” to compare the whole of Netflix with a single channel. Last night a BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC portfolio is almost twice the size of Netflix over the year and bigger than all of the SVODs (US streamers) put together. BBC iPlayer is the fastest growing TV streaming service in the UK.”
The new figures came as Netflix unveiled its global programming slate for 2025 from Los Angeles. Chief content officer Bela Bejaria defended claims from rivals that Netflix was all about volume and binge-watch appeal but not “prestige” programming. Claiming that Netflix did it all, she said: “I know some people say you can’t make quality TV or film if you do more than four titles a year. But we can, and we do.
“With more than 700 million people watching, we can’t just be one thing. We need to be the best version of everything. The only thing we do know is that a lot of people who brag about making prestige TV have a very narrow audience. This year, we’ve got some beautiful, powerful shows that meet any definition of ‘prestige TV’.” Bela said 2024’s big hits had included One Day, The Gentlemen, Baby Reindeer, Nobody Wants This, Rebel Ridge and Squid Game. Upcoming programming for 2025 includes the final runs of Stranger Things and Squid Game, with the latter launching on June 27, plus series two of supernatural hit Wednesday.
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Netflix)Image:
Noh Ju-han / Netflix)Victoria Beckham’s documentary, in which the cameras follow her at work on her fashion and beauty brand, will air later this year with a clip showing her pondering why she does it at all when she “doesn’t need to” and also despairing when one of her launches looks set to be a wash-out because of heavy rain. Also coming soon is Black Rabbit, a New York-set crime thriller starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman as brothers, gritty teen knife-crime drama Adolescence starring Stephen Graham, plus movie RIP in which Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are reunited once again for a crime thriller set in Miami.
Other offerings include a hard-hitting documentary on the Grenfell Tower disaster, a film adaptation of Richard Osman’s hit novel The Thursday Murder Club and new series House of Guinness from Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight, about the Guinness family, set in 19th century Dublin and New York. Kate Hudson stars in new comedy Running Point, Gillian Anderson takes the lead in Abandons - a drama set in 1850s Oregon - and Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman star in an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials. Lena Dunham brings viewers the comedy drama Too Much about a broken-hearted woman who moves from the US to London and wonders if Americans and Brits even speak the same language.
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