A survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2024 in the United Kingdom showed that the highest-ranked TV show was "Only Fools and Horses" with 70 percent of respondents giving it a positive rating. The shows "The Two Ronnies," "The Martin Lewis Money Show," and " Mr. Bean" followed with a 68, 67 and 66 percent popularity score, respectively.

In 2024, the final episode of “Gavin & Stacey” achieved a remarkable viewership of 19.11 million, surpassing the previous year's “King's Coronation Service,” which had 18.96 million viewers. The most viewed program in the past two decades remains “The Queen's Funeral Service” from 2022, with an impressive 26.5 million viewers. UK audiences spend the most time watching TV According to data from 2023, consumers spent the most time watching live television each day compared to any other audiovisual content such as video sharing and streaming platforms. This amounted to an average of nearly 110 minutes daily per individual. Comparatively, only an average of 38 minutes per day was spent on subscription-based and ad-supported video streaming. Drop in advertising Television advertising spending, including broadcaster video-on-demand, in the UK has seen a general decline since 2017, despite a recovery in 2021 and 2022 as a result of advertisers reacting to the removal of pandemic-related restrictions. Following that, the sector will likely slightly increase in 2024, with a 0.9 percent growth.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the highest-ranked show in the United Kingdom was "The Martin Lewis Money Show" with a 67 percent popularity rating, followed by "Planet Earth II" and "The Simpsons" both with a 65 and 64 percent, respectively.

In 2020, a year after the sitcom Gavin and Stacey dominated the list of most viewed television programs in the United Kingdom, the "Prime Ministerial Statement" of Boris Johnson emerged as the most viewed TV program . Its viewer count totaled nearly 19 million, outstripping reality shows "BBC News Special" and "I'm A Celebrity..." in second and third places by a wide margin of nearly 5 million individuals.

TV ownership in the United Kingdom

The number of adults who own a digital TV in the United Kingdom has increased over the years, with 94 percent in 2019 owning one. Unsurprisingly, the percentage of individuals who did was lower among 16 to 24 year olds but only by a marginal 3 percent. Over 55 year olds as a group had the highest percentage of TV ownership overall. By 2019, TV in the United Kingdom had a higher reach among women and children than men.

The future of broadcast TV advertising

In 2019, television advertising prices were forecasted to continue increasing until 2020. This hasn’t been an indication of growth however, as broadcast TV has been steadily loosing its audience due to the rise of video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, as well as the increasing popularity of YouTube. In a survey run from 2017 to 2019, viewing time decreased year by year for live TV, as more and more viewership time is being spent on video-on-demand platforms, YouTube, and catch-up-TV. This decline of live TV is also reflected in the reduction of broadcast TV commercial reach, which was dropped since 2016with fewer and fewer viewers watching ads in their entirety each year.

As of October 2024, the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 were the top three leading TV broadcasters in the United Kingdom (UK). In this regard, the BBC held an audience share of about 32 percent. ITV and Channel 4 had audience shares of 20 and 11.4 percent, respectively. BBC One viewing BBC One was the most popular TV channel in the UK in 2023/2024, with about 51 percent of the population using the service at least once a week. The audience spent on average seven hours weekly watching the BBC’s leading channel.   BBC finances The BBC relies on the television license as its main means of funding. In 2024, the BBC generated 5.39 million British pounds in revenue, most of which was attributed to the license fees paid by UK households. That same year, BBC One accounted for most of the BBC’s television programming spend, with costs exceeding one billion British pounds. In addition, the BBC had to incur an overall cost of 105 pence per user hour to deliver TV services through its main channels in 2023/2024.

Video streaming has proven to be popular among viewers in the UK among people over 65 years, in spite of common assumptions about streaming popularity among older populations. According to a 2021 survey, the most popular show to stream by viewers in this age group was "Line of Duty," with over 50 percent of those surveyed reporting to have streamed this program. "The Crown" and "Peaky Blinders" were the second and third most viewed TV series among this demographic group.

The film and TV programme distribution market is going through a turbulent period, as media creators are increasingly controlling their own distribution and sidelining traditional methods like cinema releases and linear TV. The performance of the industry is determined by the popularity of film and TV programme releases in a given year, the number of releases, and demand from domestic and international TV broadcasters and video-on-demand (VOD) platforms. The expansion of VOD services, especially streaming platforms, has supported industry growth despite the weak performance of cinemas. Overall, industry revenue is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 0.8% over the five years through 2025-26, including a 3.4% hike in the current year, reaching £11.8 billion. Revenue tanked in 2020-21 amid the pandemic, meaning the last five-year period started at a low point, indicating industry growth has not been robust. Industry revenue has fluctuated as a result of low cinema attendance and the varying popularity of cinema releases. Factors affecting the industry's performance include the rising number of screens owned per person and the growth of digital distribution. Continued strong performance in the sports distribution market has helped keep the industry afloat. However, rampant piracy of sport, TV and film content has curbed industry performance and cost upwards of £7.5 billion annually in value added for media distributors. Industry revenue is expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 1.8% over the five years through 2030-31 to reach £12.9 billion. Revenue generated from distribution to DVD and video retailers is likely to continue to fall as VOD services extend their dominance. The continued strong performance of over-the-top media will be a crucial growth area for distributors, and strong expected economic conditions could foster higher subscriber reach, boosting revenue. Piracy is likely to be a persistent threat to distributors because of the expanding preference for online streaming.

This statistic displays the results of a survey on the use of smart TVs to go online in the United Kingdom (UK) between 2013 and 2020, by age. In 2020 - similar to the previous year - online access via smart TV was most common among the respondents aged 35 to 44. Up until 2018, it had been the most popular among those aged 16-24 years old.

In the year ending March 31, 2024, the BBC saw an income of approximately 5.39 billion British pounds. Of this, 3.66 billion British pounds were attributed to the license fees paid by UK households. The BBC is a cornerstone of the British TV industry, with BBC 1 being used weekly by roughly 50 percent of the population. BBC iPlayer In July 2007, the BBC launched its on demand internet service, the iPlayer. Today, the platform is seeing weekly viewing times of over 300 million minutes. Landmark series such as Blue Planet II, saw almost five million requests on the platform for its first episode. Viewership The BBC is the most popular broadcaster in terms of viewers in the UK. In 2024, the BBC had an audience share more than ten percent higher than the next largest broadcaster. The BBC 1 channel alone, had a quarterly reach of approximately 55 million in the third quarter of 2019.

Ranked by viewing audience in millions of individuals, the most-watched programs on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020 was "The Great British Bake Off". The cooking show aired on October 24, 2020 had the largest audience at almost 12 million.

In 2023, Procter & Gamble ranked as the most-viewed TV advertiser in the United Kingdom. TV ads from the consumer goods company generated 29.4 billion commercial impacts. Sky appeared as the second leading advertiser, with 19.1 billion impacts.

This statistic shows a ranking of the most watched television programs on the Discovery Channel in the United Kingdom (UK) from 10 to 16 September (7 days data). The most popular program during the period of consideration was 'Deadliest Catch (Season Finale)' on Tuesday, September 11 at 21:00.

This statistic shows a ranking of the most watched television programs on the Discovery Channel during Shark Week in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017. Shark Week refers to a programming block featuring shark-related content, which is aired by Discovery Channel during one week in summer every year. In 2017, Shark Week was broadcast between July 23 and July 30. During that week, roughly 131 thousand viewers watched 'Great White Shark Serial Killer Lives' on Monday, July 24.

Over the past year more people were watching more online TV due to the pandemic. Everyone has its favorite TV series which could be watched over and over again. A survey performed in January 2021 shows that "The Simpsons" was on top of the list of the most rewatched TV series in the United Kingdom, with 54 percent of respondents. Presenting a slightly difference, the TV series "Friends" was second, with 53 percent of people interviewed.

Over the Christmas period between December 20 and 26, 2021, the most-viewed TV program in the United Kingdom (UK) was the Queen's Christmas message, attracting around 8.4 million viewers. The drama 'Death in Paradise', was watched by nearly nearly eight million viewers.

“Fool Me Once” secured the top spot as the highest-performing streaming series in the UK, achieving over two million views within the first 15 days of its premiere. Netflix's first season of “The Gentlemen” followed, garnering 1.5 million views within the same timeframe after its release.

This statistic shows the results of a survey on the type of television programs viewers preferred in the United Kingdom (UK) as of September 2017. During the survey period it was found that drama shows were the most popular among viewers with 62.1 percent of respondents stating that they had watched a program of that genre during the past week more than once. Documentaries and comedy shows ranked second and third highest.

During 2020, rugby world cup games including England accounted for the top two public service broadcasted sports events in the UK. The most watched game was the Six Nations Championship match England against Wales which hit a peak audience of almost 7.6 million individuals on ITV.

Most watched by channel

ITV's most viewed program in 2019 was I’m a Celebrity with approximately 13.2 million viewers while Channel 4’s most viewed program, the Great British Bake Off (October 29, 2019) had slightly more than ten million viewers. The popular baking show made up four of the top ten most viewed shows on Channel 4 during 2019.

Broadcasters

In 2018, the BBC had the highest audience market share of any broadcaster in the UK. It held nearly 31 percent of the market share, more than ITV's 23 percent and Channel 4's 10 percent. Its channel BBC 1 reached almost 55 million viewers in the third quarter of 2019, making it the highest-ranking channel in that period.

"Documentaries" and "Dramas" are the top two answers among UK consumers in our survey on the subject of "Preferred TV content by genre".Find this and more survey data on preferred TV content by genre in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

This statistic shows the most-watched Channel 4 programs in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020, ranked by viewing audience. In the period of consideration, The great British bake off, airing on October 24, 2020 had an audience of over 11.8 million individuals.