Viewing trends
True Detective: Night Country, Sky Atlantic
Viewing: a story of stabilisation
Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over USA, W
Despite more noise of change in the TV industry, the reality is that 2023 was actually a period with far less change than we’ve seen in recent years. There was very little movement in macro TV viewing patterns; we’ve entered a period of much more predictable viewing behaviours.
Key points
• TV viewing patterns have stabilised as the shift to on demand continues
• The decline in linear TV is being largely offset by increases to on-demand services
• SVOD viewing is stable as SVOD subscriptions reach maturity in UK
• Decline in 16-34s’ TV viewing is slowing
TV viewing patterns have stabilised
Total commercial TV viewing (covering linear TV and all forms of broadcaster VOD) held steady across 2023. There was a slight decline in January and February, and also November/December due to the boost from World Cup viewing in 2022, but overall, viewing patterns were very consistent with the previous year, with total commercial viewing down just 1.7%, the smallest decline since 2016, pandemic aside.
It’s worth noting that BBC had a slightly tougher year, with total viewing down 8%. This followed a relatively strong 2022, with coverage of the Queen’s death increasing viewing levels.
16-34s: a year of two halves
During January to May 2023, 16-34s’ TV viewing held pretty steady, but viewing dropped in comparison with 2022 in Q4 – the absence of the previous year’s World Cup having a significant impact for this audience.
Shift to on demand continues
Viewers continued the ongoing shift from linear TV to BVOD viewing. Linear viewing was down 6% whilst BVOD saw a very strong growth of 23%, with ITVX a key driver of this increase. Much of the decline in linear viewing was replaced by viewing to the UK TV companies’ streaming services.
BVOD saw a growth of
Viewing levels flatten out
SVOD viewing was relatively stable in 2023, up 2 minutes a day – more on that shortly. YouTube’s growth continued (up 4.5 minutes a day), as did TikTok’s, albeit from a small base, moving from 10 minutes a day per person to 12 minutes.
Looking at the long-term trend, 2023 viewing levels have flattened out to paint a picture of much more stability. This pattern is set to continue during 2024, with the marginal growth in total video viewing levels suggesting that increases to TikTok and YouTube are incremental rather than substitutes for TV viewing.
Amongst 16-34s, the decline in their viewing of broadcaster TV is now much slower than the pre-pandemic period of 2016 to 2019, when increased viewing to SVOD services was eating into broadcaster viewing time.
SVOD subscriptions reaching maturity in UK
As has been widely reported, SVOD subscriptions dropped marginally last year, although 75% of the population continue to subscribe to at least one service. This reduction was down to a number of factors: the cost of living crisis and tightening purse strings, subscription cycling (where viewers subscribe and unsubscribe to watch specific content), and a crackdown on password sharing. It does though paint a picture of an SVOD market that appears to have plateaued and points towards a more stable future of viewing trends.
SVOD viewing very stable
There was little change across the year in SVOD viewing, with the average viewer watching 39 minutes – a 5% increase (the same was true for ABC1s, up 5.5%, and 16-34s, up 5.1%).
Big screen trends
This Morning, ITV
The TV set remains the go-to screen for long-form entertainment and the home of premium advertising. Here we look at how viewing patterns on the TV set have changed as options to access content have proliferated thanks to IP-delivered offerings evolving from existing TV companies, established high-quality content competition from US streaming services, and newer AVOD entrants into the UK market.
Key points
Professionally produced content accounts for 95% of TV set viewing time
TV set on-demand viewing is steadily increasing – now 24% of TV set viewing time
AVOD players such as Samsung and Roku together account for less than 0.1% of TV viewing time
The living room continues to be the go-to destination for viewing
TV is the social medium: 44% of TV is watched together with others, compared with 10% for YouTube
What we watch is changing, with on-demand services driving increases to Entertainment, Drama and Film
The TV remains a minority device for YouTube
2023 data shows that TV content unsurprisingly accounts for the vast majority of TV set viewing time – together, the professionally produced content of linear TV, BVOD and SVOD account for 95% of TV set viewing. TikTok is yet to make a shift to the big screen, and, although the TV set is a growth area for YouTube, it remains a minority device contributing less viewing to YouTube than mobile/tablets or laptop/desktop PCs (25% TV set and 75% other devices).
TV set VOD is steadily increasing
IP-delivered streaming TV – such as ITVX, Sky On Demand, Netflix, and Disney+ – now accounts for 24% of all TV set viewing time, up from 18.6% in 2022. For 16-34s, the pattern is the same: up from 44% in 2022 to 48% in 2023. Emerging AVOD players such as Samsung, Rakuten and Roku – who are a significant presence in the US – are yet to make a meaningful impact in the UK, accounting for less than 0.1% of total TV viewing time.
The gravitational pull of the living room
In 2023, 82% of all TV set viewing took place in the living room, according to Barb. Despite our ability to watch pretty much whatever we want, wherever we want, there’s a gravitational pull towards the living room. To find out why, we commissioned research specialists Map the Territory and Tapestry to explore the nature of our viewing routines and build a better understanding of why the living room continues to be the go-to destination for our viewing needs.
Using advanced statistical modelling, ‘Context Effects’ identified four key contextual factors that drive ad recall at home: professional content, screen size, co-viewing, mood. The study found that the living room offers by far the most powerful combination of these factors and is the environment at home that’s best suited for advertising to succeed.
Jamie's 5 Ingredient Meals, Channel 4 →
Key findings from the study include:
• The right in-home advertising context can increase ad recall by up to 6.3 times
• High-quality, professionally-made video content drives 60% higher ad recall than non professional
• People are 44% more likely to trust advertising seen within professional content
• TV screens drive the highest advertising recall: 34% more than ads seen on a computer, 60% more than on a tablet/smartphone
• Ad recall increases by 23% when watching with others
TV screens drive higher ad recall, 60% more than tablets/smartphones
TV is the social medium
When it comes to shared viewing, TV is in a unique place to provide a scaled opportunity for advertisers to communicate with viewers whilst they’re together.
Barb data analysed by TRP shows that all forms of TV offer a high proportion of shared viewing. Across all its forms, 44% of TV is watched jointly (42% of live TV, 50% of playback, 44% of BVOD, and 43% of SVOD). By comparison, only 10% of YouTube is watched together with other people as the majority of its use takes place on personal devices.
With just over 30% of homes in the UK being single occupancy households, if we looked at this data for homes with two or more people, we would expect shared viewing to account for well over 60% of all viewing.
What we watch is changing
It isn’t only how we watch TV that is evolving; what we watch is changing too. We spent more time watching Entertainment, Drama and Film in 2023 and on-demand services were a key driver here. On demand provides viewers with the choice and control they need for this type of content.
By contrast, viewing of genres like News, Sport, Documentaries, Hobbies and Current Affairs were still dominated by linear.
Sport viewing saw some decline, with the World Cup in 2022 setting a high bar. News viewing also declined, partly down to the coverage of the Queen’s death generating higher than usual viewing levels, but also likely down to the depressing nature of global affairs.
Data for 16-34s reveals how VOD plays an even bigger role in their viewing behaviour than the average. They’re also much more avid viewers of Entertainment, Drama and Films indexing at 129, 119 and 136 respectively vs. the average.
Top 30 series on Television 2023
All individuals
Happy Valley delivered the highest average audience for any TV series in 2023, with an average audience of 12.8 million watching the final series.
As seen in this analysis for previous years, the top programmes are again dominated by UK original content, which is reflected in the top performing SVOD series being Clarkson’s Farm. The Night Agent on Netflix was the only non-UK original to make the top 30.
16-34s
For 16-34s we see more US content coming through, although the top shows are also UK originals with Clarkson’s Farm perhaps surprisingly taking the top spot.
