What People Watch

Welcome to 2024. In reviewing 2023 three items have recurred more than most. We will tackle each one in more detail below. In short they are:
 

• The idea that watching on-demand or via a streaming service dominates viewers’ time.
• YouTube. It features in almost every discussion about TV. We commented on the growing importance of TV sets to YouTube here. More recently YouTube’s own co-viewing data has made headlines. We’ll shed light on co-viewing for different services below.
• Bonfire content – that which is ever present on a schedule or as a recurring favourite via a VOD platform – remains incredibly important to viewers.

 
Nobody watches TV at the point of broadcast anymore – incorrect
 
It’s just over two years since we added pure-play VOD streamers and video-sharing services to our independent measurement of what people watch. Almost all viewing on these services is, by definition, not live. Once episodes are released the viewer is in control. This has created the idea that on-demand viewing, whatever the source, has replaced viewing at the point of broadcast (live) almost entirely. This is wrong.
 
In 2023 56% of all time with the TV set was spent viewing programmes at the point of broadcast. The remaining 44% includes all viewing to VOD services like Netflix, all viewing to video sharing services like YouTube, as well as any timeshifted viewing of broadcaster content. From here on we’ll refer to the 56% as live viewing.
 
Live viewing, then, is more than half the time people spend with their TV set. If we include VOSDAL (viewed on the same day as live) that figure is 64% for 2023.
 
Chart 1: Live viewing is the majority of viewers time with their TVs
 
Source: Barb December 2021 – December 2023.
 
While substantial, live viewing is falling. In 2022 live viewing averaged just over two hours per person per day. In 2023 that was almost 11 minutes per day lower. Projecting this forward, live alone (that is viewing at the point of broadcast) could be less than half of time with the TV set as soon as 2025.
 
However, this fails to take account of the increase in VOSDAL viewing. VOSDAL averaged 16 minutes per day in 2023 – a 22% rise on 2022.
 
Predictions are tricky, but live and VOSDAL together could net out to where live is now in the next 3-5 years. A slower decline than taking live in isolation. Is this just an attempt to prop up the figures for live viewing? No – the increase in viewing via broadband, rather than a dedicated cable, satellite or ariel, makes the case for including VOSDAL.
 
Anyone viewing TV via the internet has experienced lag. Live sport illustrates this best. Cheers suddenly erupt from next door a full minute before you see the action. It’s easy for viewing to slip well behind 20 seconds after live; the threshold for viewing to move from being counted as live to VOSDAL.
 
Live is a minority of viewing for younger audiences
 
The balance between live, VOSDAL and on-demand does, however, differ considerably by age. Under-35s who, broadly, first recorded TV programmes using Sky+ are less likely to view live than over-35s who, broadly, first recorded programmes using a VCR.
 
Our Sky+ kids watched 25% live in 2023, down from 33% in 2022. VCR users watched 64% live in 2023. Down from 69% in 2022. These percentages obscure another fact. The younger group spend less than half the amount of time with their TV set overall. The VCR users watched 68 minutes on-demand per day in 2023, while the Sky+ kids watched 76 minutes. A less dramatic divide.
 
If the Sky+ kids increase their time with the TV set to match previous generations and fail to find love for live then we might be able to crown on-demand over live. But live, perhaps including VOSDAL, isn’t dead yet.
 
Co-viewing on YouTube slightly behind broadcast and well behind pure-play VOD
 
Barb data is the industry’s standard for understanding what people watch. Our panel, soon to be 7,000 UK homes, allows us to include a people-based measurement of co-viewing. The independent figures we produce for YouTube viewing already include how much of it is with other people.
 
In 2023 we saw that 43% of viewing to YouTube on a TV set took place with at least two individuals aged 4+ in the room. That figure for broadcasters was 46%. While it was highest for the pure-play VOD services at 54%.
 
Chart 2: Co-viewing peaks in colder months regardless of how content got to the screen
 
Source: Barb 2023. As viewed data.
 
A monthly breakdown shows that more co-viewing takes place during winter. This makes sense. People are less likely to be out and about in winter. And viewing as a whole drops in the summer. Making people more likely to be dedicated solo viewers when they do view.
 
Returning to the overall co-viewing proportions we should bear in mind that this figure is for all time spent viewing YouTube on a TV. Viewers could be watching shorts, ads or content of varying quality.
 
Fit-for-TV content on YouTube has co-viewing levels to match pure-play VOD
 
The best example we have of content viewed via YouTube is the Champions League final. In 2023 an audience of 5.1 million individuals watched Man City beat Inter Milan. That is a game time, whistle-to-whistle, figure. We know that 28% of that audience – 1.4m – watched via YouTube thanks to TNT Sport (BT Sport as was) making the game free to view on their YouTube channel. Of those 1.4m YouTube viewers 54% were co-viewing.
 
The fact that this proportion is higher than the overall YouTube figure reflects the type of content being viewed. This is television content that happens to be viewed via YouTube. It is also event TV. Potentially a once in a lifetime event. Unless you are a Real Madrid, or even Liverpool, fan. It is an event to be watched with other fans. The data reflect this.
 
As viewers congregate to watch certain TV programmes, so too they huddle around the bonfire content that seems universally popular.
 
Everyone loves a bonfire
 
We’ve used the analogy before, borrowed from Kevin Lygo at ITV, that there are certain shows which act as fireworks – bursting into life and commanding large audiences. While others act as bonfires – comforting and ever present. This appears to be an analogy with staying power.
 
Previously we’ve applied this to pure-play VOD programming. Making the point that library titles are vital to retaining audiences for those services. The same analysis for the major broadcasters shows a similar picture.
 
Four of the five titles pulling in large volumes of viewing are current, rather than library, content. But all are long running programmes with which audiences have great familiarity. They are Emmerdale, The Premier League (on Sky), EastEnders, Peppa Pig and Coronation Street. Together they account for an average of 20% of viewing to the top 100 programmes.
 
Chart 3: Bonfire content is the bedrock of broadcaster audiences on any given day
 
Source: Barb 2023. Daily audience to the top 100 shows. Broadcasters included the portfolio of channels from: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Paramount and Sky.
 
Broadcaster fireworks tend to be seasonal big hitters: Strictly, I’m A Celebrity or Bake Off. These programmes produce large audiences, watercooler discussion topics and even news headlines. But the bonfires are vital. Everyone loves a bonfire – they keep us going in between the fireworks.
 
2024 – the year of linear?
 
What will 2024 hold? In an election year for the UK and the US Omar Oakes, editor-in-chief at The Media Leader, predicted a “flight to quality” media. Presented by experts in a linear fashion that the human brain finds easier to process. If viewing follows such a pattern Barb data will be here to reflect it.
 
Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight, Barb