UK’s viewing habits changing as half of homes have Netflix

Friends in London. Clockwise from top left: Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry

For the first time, young people now spend more than an hour on YouTube each day, the Ofcom report also showed, and adults watch around half an hour of YouTube a day.

Average daily viewing of streaming services rose by seven minutes last year to 26 minutes.

Traditional TV is in decline despite the broadcasters showing over 100 times more original, UK-made shows than the streaming giants.

Despite the World Cup, the royal wedding, and hit dramas like Bodyguard, BBC One had a three-minute fall to 41 average daily minutes.

The declines were driven by larger decreases in peak time and falls in viewing by older audiences, as the share of viewing for children and 16 to 34s increased slightly on the BBC’s flagship channel.

UK-made drama still resonates with audiences, with Bodyguard the most-watched drama in 2018, but Ofcom said “a few popular drama and entertainment programmes are not enough on their own to stem the overall decline in broadcast TV viewing”. The number of UK households signed up to the biggest streaming platforms – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV and Disney Life – rose from 11.2 million (39 per cent) in 2018 to 13.3 million (47 per cent) in 2019.

Some 38 per cent of online users can imagine not watching broadcast TV at all in five years’ time.

The UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) – BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C – showed more than 100 times more original, homegrown shows than overseas streaming platforms.

PSB channels are still the preferred place to watch national events.

Ofcom said ITV is heavily reliant on its top ten regular programmes – Coronation Street, Emmerdale, The Chase, ITV News, Tipping Point, Good Morning Britain, This Morning, I’m A Celebrity!, The Jeremy Kyle Show (now axed) and The X Factor.