Television – Who and What?

Media coverage of OFCOM’s latest CMR report was dominated by headlines such as ‘binge viewing spells end of family TV time.’  But the TV and audiovisual section of the report makes for interesting reading. It shows a growing gap between the viewing habits of older and younger audiences but the main finding is that live broadcast TV is still the first choice for most people:

The public service broadcast channels (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV/STV/UTV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) continued to retain more than half of the total broadcast TV audience in 2016, maintaining their 51% share over the past four years.

Including their portfolio channels, the PSB broadcasters accounted for more than two-thirds of viewing. The spend on UK-originated programming by the main five PSB channels was at its highest level since 2012, and more than half of the channels’ output (52%) was first-run UK-originated content in 2016.