WIREDGOV

We’ve yesterday published our latest research looking at the media habits of people in the UK, which highlights audiences’ media use and attitudes towards different platforms.

We’ve captured some of the main findings in our news release, but for some further insight we’ve highlighted here some of the other things we discovered.

Three of the top five media activities are predominantly done online

While watching and listening to TV and radio in the traditional ways remain popular, online activities now account for three of the top five most common activities.

Watching video on demand and using social media were those with the highest reach, with 85% and 84% of people using them each month. These were followed by listening to live radio on a radio set (68%), watching live TV on a TV set (67%) and listening to streamed music (62%).

Consumer spending remains an important source of revenue

Alongside advertising, consumer spending - whether via subscriptions, rentals or one-off content purchases - is the main driver of funding for the media sector as a whole.

In 2024, consumer spending reached almost £19bn across TV, digital video and cinema, recorded music and videogame software. Almost £12bn of this total related to expenditure on pay-TV, subscription video-on-demand (SVoD), digital video retail and the cinema box office. In some cases, there are examples of these being bundled together; for example, pay-TV operators offering SVoD subscriptions or even cinema tickets as part of a pay-TV subscription.

But households keep an eye on the cost of subscriptions

The most common reasons reported for unsubscribing, or downgrading SVoD subscriptions, are to do with cost – despite users saying they were happy overall with streaming services.

Some viewers reported unsubscribing from SVoD services in the past three months (Amazon Prime: 6%, Netflix: 4%, Disney+: 4%). Of those who had unsubscribed, the most common reasons related to cost. For Netflix, 24% claimed that they didn’t use it enough to justify the cost, 23% cited the increased subscription price as a reason, and 22% said that it was too expensive.

For Amazon Prime, the top reasons for unsubscribing were that they didn’t use it enough to justify the expense (35%), and because it was too expensive (35%). For Disney+ it was primarily because it was too expensive (37%).

While 14% of households said they had downgraded their household Netflix subscription in the past year, Netflix remains the most-watched SVoD service, averaging 22 minutes per viewer (aged 4+) per day in 2024.

Although take-up of SVoD services has plateaued, they’re still the first port of call for many

The proportion of UK households with an SVoD service in the first quarter of 2025 continues to plateau, and was at the same level (68%) as it was in 2021. Two-thirds of UK households subscribe to at least one of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+, with Netflix remaining the most subscribed-to service, accounting for nearly half of total SVoD viewing in 2024.

When we looked at the first destination viewers go to after switching on their TV sets, SVoD is the platform children and young adults are most likely to select first. Twenty-seven per cent of children aged 4-15 choose SVoD as a first TV destination, compared to 26% who select a linear channel and 20% who choose a video-sharing service (mainly YouTube). An SVoD service is also the jointly most popular first destination for adults aged 16-34, although the same proportion (30%) select a linear channel as their first destination.

Audiences continue to be satisfied with public service broadcasters

According to our Public Service Media Tracker 2024, around seven in ten viewers of public service broadcasters (PSBs) say they are satisfied with them overall – this is in line with previous years. 

Overall, viewers consider PSBs are delivering well across a range of attributes. These include programmes made for UK audiences (67%), a wide range of different types of programmes, such as drama, comedy, entertainment or sport (67%) and programmes that appeal to a wide range of different audiences (63%). Again, this is consistent with previous years.

A majority (71%) said it is important that PSBs provide catch-up, on-demand or streaming services, with people from higher earning groups more important than those from lower earning groups to say so (78% vs 64%).

Live radio continues to be resilient, despite the other audio content that’s available

More than nine in ten adults (93%) listen to some form of audio content each week, with this rising to 98% of 16-34s. Music radio and online music services are the most popular source of audio, used by around six in ten UK adults each week.

We also found that streamed music and other forms of online audio are increasing their share of our listening. This increase is more pronounced in younger people aged 15-34, who now spend over half of their weekly listening time with streamed music and podcasts (58%, up from 40% in 2019), almost double the amount for the average listener (30%).

However, despite the availability of other forms of audio, live radio retains a high reach. According to RAJAR, which uses a focused radio survey, almost nine in ten UK adults aged 15 and over (87%) tuned into the radio for an average of 20.5 hours per week in the first quarter of 2025.

The most-used platform for radio is DAB, accounting for 42% of listening hours, followed by AM/FM at 27%. Meanwhile listening through smart speakers has been increasing gradually and now accounts for 18% of live radio listening hours.