News is the genre that is seeing the biggest decline in linear TV viewing, according to a new Ofcom report about the UK’s media consumption habits.
The Ofcom Media Nations report, citing Barb data, revealed that average news viewing on the public service broadcaster channels decreased by 16 hours per person between 2022 and 2023 to 88 hours.
The decline was all in linear TV, with viewing via the on-demand services owned by each broadcaster (such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX) staying steady on three hours.
This meant news fell from being the second-most watched genre on public service broadcasters in 2022, behind only entertainment (157 hours), to the third most popular behind drama (which stayed on 100 hours).
Excluding sports, for which viewing depends on which major sporting events are held each year, current affairs viewing saw the second-biggest annual decline down from 25 hours to 20 hours on average per person.
Ofcom suggested the decline in news viewing may be driven by factors including an increase in the use of social media for news (including channels by the PSBs themselves on the likes of Youtube and Tiktok) as well as a decrease in the overall level of interest in news.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism recently found that interest in news in the UK has almost halved since 2015, with a fall from 70% saying they were extremely or very interested in news then to 38% this year.
Average PSB viewing of TV news by 16 to 24-year-olds also fell year-on-year, although not by the most among all the genres, going from 17 hours to 12 hours. Current affairs was down among this age group from six to four hours, Ofcom said.
Despite this drop in viewing there was actually an increase in new news and current affairs TV output in 2023, with hours of "first-run" output (commissioned by or for a public service broadcast channel in the UK that year) up by 261 hours or 1.4% to 19,374.
Ofcom said this was "primarily driven" by an increase on BBC channels including BBC News and BBC Parliament.
ITV's first-run news and current affairs output was down by 5.5% year-on-year - but still at its second-highest level since 2011 - and Channel 4's was down by 11.3%, with Ofcom noting that 2022 featured several high-profile events including the death of Queen Elizabeth II and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This may also explain why there was a £13m or 3.5% reduction in spend on news and current affairs, down to £363m across the PSB channels.
Ofcom Media Nations report: Less than half of 16-24s watch broadcast TV each week
Overall, not just for news and current affairs, for the first time less than half of 16 to 24-year-olds are now watching broadcast TV in an average week, the new report found.
Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence, said: “Gen Z and Alpha are used to swiping and streaming, not flipping through broadcast TV channels. They crave the flexibility, immediacy and choice that on-demand services offer, spending over three hours a day watching video, but only 20 minutes of live TV. It’s no surprise that the traditional TV is fast becoming a device of choice to watch Youtube.
“But while live TV may not have the universal pull it once did, its role in capturing those big moments that bring the nation together remains vital.”
Figures from Ofcom's Public Service Media Tracker published within the Media Nations report showed 60% of more than 2,000 respondents who had watched the BBC's TV channels in the previous six months rated it as providing trusted and accurate UK news.
Just over half (54%) of ITV viewers said the same for that channel, followed by 51% for Channel 4 and 39% for Channel 5.
"Trusted and accurate UK news" was ranked as one of the three most important attributes for a public service broadcaster to deliver by 49% of respondents. This was followed by "a wide range of different types of programmes, such as drama, comedy, entertainment or sport" (45%) and programmes that help me to understand what is going on in the world today" (29%).
Trusted and accurate news was ranked in the top three most important factors by a lower proportion of 16 to 34-year-olds: 38% did so, versus 46% of 35-54s and 60% of those aged 55 and over.
News top for daily podcast listening
The Media Nations report also featured the finding that news and current affairs podcasts have the highest daily listening of any genre.
Among those who said they listen to podcasts at least once a month, a fifth listen to news and current affairs podcasts daily.
News and current affairs podcasts are narrowly in second place for net weekly listening (48% of monthly podcast listeners) behind entertainment on 49%.
Politics podcasts are the fifth-ranked genre with 38% of listeners tuning in at least weekly, but they do not feature in the top ten for 18 to 34-year-olds.
News podcasts have a higher weekly reach (55%) among those aged 55 and over, with whom they are the top genre ahead of politics in second place (42%). Under half (47%) of 18 to 34-year-olds listen to news and current affairs podcasts weekly, making it the fourth-highest genre after entertainment (58%), comedy (54%) and discussion and talk shows (54%).
Four in ten households (41%) had a smart speaker in the first quarter of this year and 24% of those said they used it to get news reports.
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