We’ve published our latest Media Nations report, which looks at the UK’s media landscape and how people across the country use and consume media across a range of platforms.
Our main findings show that younger audiences are watching less broadcast TV, while, overall, radio listening is on the rise.
And the report highlights a number of other findings that give an insight into how we use different media and platforms for our information and entertainment. Here we’ve rounded up a few of them.
Video streaming audiences have plateaued
Take-up of streaming video-on-demand (SVoD) services has levelled out at just over two-thirds of households. Take-up has returned to the peak it achieved in early 2022, following a period of fluctuation over the past couple of years.
The SVoD sector generated just under £4bn in subscription revenue in 2023 – up 22% year on year, driven by price rises.
Music streaming and podcasts are gradually rising
Music streaming services now reach half of all people aged 15+ weekly, but reach has stabilised among under-55s, with growth over the past couple of years only coming from those aged 55+.
Meanwhile, a fifth of people aged 15+ listen to at least one podcast per week, with reach highest among 25- to 34-year-olds. While older people are less likely to listen to podcasts, reach among people over 54 has steadily increased over the past five years, and just over one in ten people aged 65+ listened to podcasts each week.
And we’re also spending more on recorded music
Alongside the gradual growth in music streaming and podcast listening, consumer spending on recorded music continued to rise and was up 10% year on year, to exceed £2.2bn. Spend on physical formats maintained its share versus subscriptions, with both growing by 10%.
Revenues are down at the commercial broadcasters
While total commercial TV and online revenue grew slightly by 0.5% to £15.6bn, the commercial public service broadcasters (PSBs) and digital multichannels suffered revenue declines of 16% and 10% respectively, to fall just below 2020 levels. While overall advertising spend increased by 5.3% to £36.6bn, this was driven by growth for online, which rose by £2.6bn (10%).
And the public service broadcasters spent less
PSBs’ spend on new TV content totalled £2.7bn in 2023, down 5.3% on a particularly strong 2022, but still 8.1% higher than in 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year).
The single biggest reason for this overall reduction was a significant drop in sports programming, following a 2022 that included the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Women’s Euros and the Winter Olympics. In other genres, such as entertainment and drama, there were signs of rising production costs sustained by high inflation, following previous years’ Covid-driven increases.
Smartphone use doesn’t switch off when we’re in the car
While three-quarters of people say they listen to the radio when they’re driving, our in-car radios aren’t the only entertainment source when we’re on the road. About two-thirds of drivers connect their smartphone to the car, and after the radio, mirroring systems such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are the most common ways to listen to audio in our vehicles.
However, access to streaming services in vehicles is important to younger people, with about two-thirds of 16-24-year-olds saying these services are essential when on the road.
For more findings, take a look at the full Media Nations report.