YouTube is now the second most-watched home video service in the UK, behind the BBC but ahead of ITV, according to a new report from media regulator OfCom. For those under the age of 35, YouTube is the most watched in-home video platform with Netflix in second place. TikTok is in third place for 16-35 year olds, while the BBC comes third for children under the age of sixteen.
The OfCom report also confirms that an increasing amount of YouTube consumption happens via good old fashioned TV sets, as the audience for linear TV services slowly declines in favour of on-demand content. YouTube is also becoming a key platform for people seeking audio content, according to the report.
All of which means that traditional public service broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C are having to expand their integration with YouTube as well as developing their own digital platforms. It could also result in new obligations on YouTube to ensure that those broadcasters’ content is sign-posted.
Commenting on the report, OfCom’s Ed Leighton says: “Scheduled TV is increasingly alien to younger viewers, with YouTube the first port of call for many when they pick up the TV remote. But we’re also seeing signs that older adults are turning to the platform as part of their daily media diet too”.
Public service broadcasters are “recognising this shift”, he adds, by “moving to meet audiences in the online spaces where they increasingly spend their time”. However, he says, “we need to see even more ambition in this respect to ensure that public service media that audiences value survives long into the future”.
According to the stats set out in OfCom’s report, UK consumers spent an average of 4.5 hours per day watching TV and video content at home in 2024. Broadcast TV still accounts for the majority of in-home viewing for now, at 56%, but the definite trend is a slow shift to on-demand content, and especially YouTube.
“At home, people spent 39 minutes on YouTube per day in 2024, with 16 minutes of this via the household’s TV set”, the report says. Viewers aged between 16 and 34 are “watching 18 minutes of YouTube a day on TV”, while one in five children under sixteen “head straight to the app as soon as they turn the set on".
While the shift to on-demand and YouTube is obviously most significant among the younger demographic, it’s not exclusive to that age group. “Over 55s are now watching nearly double the amount of YouTube content on their TVs compared to the previous year”, the report says, which means an average of 11 minutes a day compared to 6 minutes in 2023.
The increasing dominance of online video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitch - and especially YouTube when it comes to longer-form video or audio content - is no secret to anyone in the business of content, as well as everyone involved in music marketing and fan engagement.
But OfCom’s report puts that big trend very much in the spotlight, as well as considering what it means for the UK’s public services broadcasters, or PSBs.
For OfCom, it’s important those PSBs are proactively partnering with YouTube, to ensure they are reaching audiences who predominantly access content on that platform. But beyond that, the regulator also recently floated the idea that new laws may be required to force YouTube to ensure that those broadcasters’ output gets a certain level of exposure.
Traditionally PSBs, which are regulated by OfCom, have been given prominence on broadcast platforms - for example the first five channel slots on terrestrial, satellite and cable TV platforms - in return for meeting certain public service obligations.
In another OfCom report published earlier this month, the regulator wrote, “It is critical that the PSBs and YouTube work together to ensure that PSB content is prominent” on that platform, so that PSBs “continue to connect with all audiences, particularly for news, which supports democracy, and for UK children’s programming which helps young audiences learn and grow”.
It then added, “The government should consider whether this needs to be underpinned by legislation. This would require significant work but would give prominence for PSB content on YouTube statutory backing, just as the Media Act provides PSB players prominence on connected TVs and other devices”.