What People Watch

Who are you? How we define ourselves takes many forms. In terms of different demographics, we have age, sex, where we live and ethnic community, among other options. These have long been of critical interest for our industry. They can provide clues as to what viewers might like to watch, be interested in or even spend their money on.

As viewing habits evolve, those doing the viewing change more slowly. We have become accustomed to discussions of the major viewing trends: people are streaming more and watching linear less, and devices other than the TV set are growing in importance. But how evenly are these trends spread across the nation? Are these changes in viewing habits concentrated in particular sections of society? This What People Watch investigates this question.

The Barb panel is designed to be representative of the breadth of UK society, and that includes its ethnic make-up. For instance, our panel reflects the viewing habits of those 1.6m people who define themselves as Black African or nearly 2m Indians (Establishment Survey Q2 2023). We can compare these viewing behaviours to the nation as a whole and see if there are any differences.

At a top-line level, we can look at the three categories of viewing (chart 1). In June 2023, all individuals aged 4+ spent 63% of their viewing time watching broadcaster content on any screen, 22% on video-sharing services, and 15% on SVOD/AVOD services. By contrast, every ethnic group, apart from White British, spent a smaller share of their time with broadcaster content. Pakistanis spent the largest share of their time – 49% – with video-sharing services, while those from another white background (not British) were the ethnic group with the largest proportion of SVOD/AVOD viewing – 21%.

Chart 1: Share of Total Identified Viewing by viewing category and ethnic group
Source: Barb, June 2023. See endnote for detail on ethnic groups shown here.

What about volume of viewing? All individuals spent a daily average of 220 minutes with any category of viewing in June 2023. Four of the seven ethnic groups split out here are close to this figure, while the remaining groups sit some way behind that 220-minute average.

The final macro element we can look at is the screen people are using to watch on (chart 2). For all individuals, the TV set accounts for 80% of viewing across all categories. White British people are slightly ahead of this at 83%, while all other ethnicities spend less time watching on the TV set. Black Africans and Pakistanis spend just 60% and 61% of their time respectively with the TV set, but for these groups, smartphones are significant. 26% of viewing by Black Africans is on a smartphone and for Pakistanis the figure is 28% – in both cases just over 49 minutes a day on average.

Chart 2: Viewing by device and ethnic group
Source: Barb, June 2023. See endnote for detail on ethnic groups shown here.

Age is also a factor. The average age of the UK population aged 4+ is nearly 43. The average age of those in the ethnic groups above is between 32 and almost 38. White British is the older outlier group with an average age of 45.

We can investigate this to a degree by looking at the behaviour of all 16–34-year-olds in the UK. In charts one and two we can see that younger viewers in the UK do behave more like those from ethnic backgrounds who have a younger average age. 16-34s’ daily total identified viewing is 20% lower than the national average at 176 minutes per day. Video-sharing services are where they spend most of their time, while they spend a similar amount of time watching broadcaster and SVOD/AVOD content. Smartphones are also very important to them. They spend an average of 49 minutes a day with these devices – in line with the Black African and Pakistani groups we highlighted earlier.

It could be argued therefore that the comparative youth of these groups is the driving factor in the differences we see, rather than their ethnicity. Video-sharing services are much more important to many ethnic groups than they are to the UK population as a whole, but all younger viewers share this proclivity. At present, Barb’s capability for understanding the content viewed on video-sharing services, the majority of which is accounted for by YouTube, is limited to programmes that broadcasters make available via their YouTube channels.

Channel 4 is one broadcaster that does this. In June, almost 1.1m individuals watched some Channel 4 content via YouTube – 1.7% of the population. For all 16-34s, that figure was 2.7%. Comparing this to the various ethnic groups we can see that watching Channel 4 in this way is most popular for those of a Bangladeshi background – Channel 4 programming reached 11.1% of them via YouTube in June. For Black Africans and Black Caribbeans, that figure was 2.8% and 2% respectively – ahead of the population, but behind younger viewers for Black Caribbeans. Indians, at 0.7% and White British people, at 1.6%, were the only groups to sit behind the national average.

Looking more widely, episodes of Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom from Nick Jr are the most watched broadcaster programmes via YouTube on a TV set. However, we can also clearly see viewing via YouTube to channels that target specific ethnic audiences. Of the top 50 programmes from UK broadcasters in June, ranked by viewing from YouTube, 12 are from Geo TV, ARY Digital, HUM Europe, Dunya TV and WION. All five channels originate in Pakistan or India and broadcast in a language other than English, except for WION, the English-language Indian news channel.

Where we have a greater depth of understanding about programmes viewed away from broadcast and video-sharing services is with SVOD providers.

A theme we have regularly touched on, and referenced in our previous What People Watch on SVOD churn, is the idea of bonfire and firework content: a small number of shows can account for a significant proportion of time with a channel or service. In June 2023, 20% of the aggregated audience for the top 100 SVOD shows was from five library titles at a national level: The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, Friends, Modern Family and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. By contrast, that figure was just 3% for Indians based on their top 100 SVOD shows, with significant differences for other groups as well.

This is also where youth as an overriding factor loses some weight. The aggregated audience for these five shows for 16-34s accounted for 24% of the audience to their top 100 SVOD shows.

Does this mean that library content is less appealing to Indian viewers on SVOD services? Well, the fact that Gilmore Girls, the last series of which was released in 2006, topped their SVOD viewing table suggests library content is still important. Indeed, Friends ranked ninth, although The Simpsons languished outside the top 200.

Perhaps, given the programmes that ranked highly via YouTube, they are using SVOD services to catch up on viewing in another language? There is some evidence for this. Four of the top 100 SVOD shows viewed by Indian audiences are in Hindi: Scoop (Netflix), Jee Karda (Amazon), Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery (Netflix) and Dahaad (Amazon). We must caveat at this point that we do not reference all content on these services, so there may be more viewing in Hindi, or other languages, that is not captured here. Jee Karda, for instance, is also dubbed into four other Dravidian languages spoken in India and other parts of South Asia.

Scoop hints at a change that is occurring as certain ethnic groups become more established in the UK. The programme is available in five languages, with viewing to both English and Hindi versions captured. In June, the aggregated average audience to the Hindi version was 125k Indians, while 140k Indians watched the English version. As the Indian population in the UK matures, many families are into a second or third generation born here. With direct links to India fading, perhaps so too does the use of the language of those who first came to the UK?

A further look at the content viewed reveals some differences that might be driven by both age and ethnicity. Never Have I Ever is a Netflix comedy-drama following Devi, an Indian-American high school girl, through various trials and tribulations. It is narrated by John McEnroe, although it is unclear if this has aided or hampered audience figures. The show has achieved widespread popularity, ranking as the ninth most-watched SVOD programme amongst all individuals in June. It ranked second for Indian and Pakistani viewers, and sixth for Bangladeshis. For 16-34s, it ranked eleventh, suggesting that, in this case, viewers from a South Asian background may have been more likely to tune in for a show where they can identify with the main character.

What does all of this tell us? At its core, Barb data allow the industry to build a picture of what people watch across the nation, and the devices and services that they use to do so. A person’s ethnicity is a fundamental part of their identity – our analysis demonstrates that it can influence what they watch – but other factors, such as age, are also important. Barb data allow for analysis by ethnicity, age and many other factors. This is the richness and flexibility that Barb data provide to the UK’s television and advertising industry. Ethnicity is part of this rich tapestry – the picture would be duller without it – but no one ever looks at just one part of the tapestry in isolation.

Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight, Barb

A note on the ethnic groups shown
Ethnicity on the Barb panel is derived from questions asked when recruiting panel members that allow them to identify themselves according to a number of options. Included is the option to identify as an ethnicity not presented. Building a panel that’s representative of the ethnic mix in the UK is made possible by following the robust picture of the population as a whole that’s derived from Barb’s Establishment Survey of 53,000 households.

The exact question and classifications that form part of the Establishment Survey can be found on the Barb website here. Question P16 starts at the foot of page 47.