Commercial PSB and pay-TV revenues are at their lowest level since 2012, while less than half of 16-24s are regularly watching linear TV, Ofcom’s latest report reveals.
The combined revenues of ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, Virgin Media and digital multichannel broadcasters fell by 7.5% to £10.2bn in 2023.
ITV, C4 and C5’s combined revenues were down 16% to £1.9bn.
The PSBS spent £2.7bn on 31,770 hours of first-run original shows in 2023, down 5.3% and 2.9% respectively on the previous year but still well above pre-pandemic levels.
These traditional operators’ decline is contrasted by the SVoDs, whose revenues rose by 22% to £4bn.
With subscriptions levelling out, this growth was fuelled by both price rises and the introduction of advertising, which contributed around £50m.
Netflix is the market leader with 16.7m households subscribing to the platform and watching for an average of 21 minutes a day – more than half of all SVoD viewing, and ahead of Disney+’s nine minutes and Amazon Prime Video’s seven.
Young viewers
The Media Nations report also details that 48% of 16-24 year-olds watched any broadcast TV in an average week, down from 54% in 2022. Only seven years ago, the figure stood at 76%.
These young viewers watched just 20 minutes a day of live TV, nearly half the previous year’s 39 minutes and just over a fifth of the 93 minutes spent watching content on video-sharing platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.
Overall, broadcast TV’s weekly reach fell from 79% in 2022 to 75% in 2023, a second consecutive year of record decline, with all age groups showing a decline.
