Insight

Video-sharing is not a new phenomenon. People have been sharing videos ever since we were able to make them, and I don’t just mean professionally-produced content. Has anyone ever shown you their holiday video? Or that of a wedding? Riveting stuff, especially when something amusing happens.

The amusing bits gave rise to a whole television programme in 1990 – You’ve Been Framed – and when YouTube came along in 2005, perhaps inevitably, videos of people and pets doing funny things were to the fore.

Video-sharing sites have evolved considerably since then. They are a vital source of information, and unfortunately disinformation. They provide a platform for knowledge sharing. And they are another way in which broadcasters can distribute their programming.

Since November 2021, we have been reporting audience levels for video-sharing services on TV sets and other devices that use the home WiFi network. At this aggregate level, we can see video-sharing services are responsible for around 17% of Total Identified Viewing across four screens in any given week. The lion’s share of this is from YouTube and TikTok.

If we break this down by device (chart 1), we can see that smartphones are almost all that matters for TikTok, while YouTube use is more evenly split across devices. This is in stark contrast to broadcaster, BVOD and SVOD/AVOD viewing, which largely comes from the TV set.

Chart 1: Device profile
Source: Barb. April 2022

Device splits provide some insight, but one of the core functions of Barb data is to provide a greater understanding of the people viewing on these devices. If we break usage down by ethnicity for these services, we see something very interesting and perhaps unexpected: All ethnic groups, other than White British, watch more YouTube, and for some TikTok, than the UK average.

In particular, we can see that Bangladeshi and Pakistani homes spend at least twice as much time watching YouTube and TikTok than average. The global nature of YouTube makes it an easy way to access programmes in other languages, which could be one factor in driving use among these groups.

Another influential factor is the average age of those living in Bangladeshi and Pakistani homes. Establishment Survey data from Q4 2021 show that the average age across the UK is 42 (of those aged 4+), while the average age of Pakistanis is just under 31 and Bangladeshis is just over 30.

And we know that youth is a factor in higher viewing time with YouTube and TikTok. On average those aged 16-34 spend more time with both services, as we can see in chart 2. We can also see that young South-Asians are spending even more time with these services than young adults in general. So, while youth is clearly a factor, so is the ethnic origin of these viewers.

Time spent with Tik Tok is lower – less than one-third that of YouTube – but not insignificant at an average of ten minutes per day for all individuals. Again, those from Pakistani and Bangladeshi homes watch around twice the national average. They are joined at these high levels of TikTok viewing by those with a Black African background (average age almost 31), who watch Tik Tok for an average of 14 minutes per day.

Chart 2: YouTube and TikTok use by ethnicity
Source: Barb. April 2022. All devices. All individuals 4+ by ethnicity. Indexed against all individuals 4+. South-Asian includes: Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi homes.

Another tool we can use to enhance our understanding of the people accessing these services is the IPA TouchPoints integration with Barb data. IPA TouchPoints offers a wealth of classifications by which to cut audiences on a TV set. Related to the point above, this shows that fluent speakers of Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali or Punjabi watch YouTube on their TV set at more than twice the level of the UK in general.

Chart 3 – YouTube user activities
Source: Barb. April 2022. All individuals 16+ using YouTube on a TV set. Indexed against all individuals 16+. Selected activities.

The wealth of data contained within IPA TouchPoints means that we can consider a number of different habits, activities or choices that people make. Here we have looked at those who watch content via YouTube on their TV set, to see what other activities they do or don’t do.

Some of the activities for which this group over-index, such as going clubbing, hint at a younger audience – although we shouldn’t discount the possibility that those people who should have retired the glo-sticks long ago are still hitting the clubs on a quarterly basis!

We might also surmise that this career-focused group is making use of YouTube to catch-up on e-sports when they aren’t working, while money saved by eschewing coffee shops and betting can be saved for those quarterly club nights.

Back in 1990, a demographic breakdown of live viewing to You’ve Been Framed was the height of sophistication. Now, the huge range of Barb’s audience measurement capabilities, from the launch of reporting of viewing to streaming services to the Barb / IPA TouchPoints data integration, helps us to build a much richer understanding of what people watch. With the active participation of SVOD and video-sharing services in Barb, imagine where the next 30 years could take us!

Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight at Barb