Ofcom’s Media Nations Report is always a fascinating read and their analysis is second to none. The fragmentation within TV that has been evolving over the last few years shows no signs of decline, but it would seem we are now in a relative period of stability.  

Given the depth of analysis within the report, I wonder how many of us really get through the first few pages… with that in mind, I wanted to look at one chart in particular that sits on page 9 in the report.

Figure 3: Average Daily Minutes of Broadcast TV Viewed, By Age: 2013 – 2023

It paints a rather bleak picture for Broadcast TV across all ages with the exception of the 75+ audience, and that would likely be the takeaway of the report for many. But reading through the report reveals many more of the nuances that are a driving force of change in the TV ecosystem and the commercial opportunities that are growing. The chart above is all Broadcast TV including non-commercial BBC. If we remove the latter but also include all commercial BVOD viewing and the first half of 2024, the numbers don’t look quite so stark: 

Average Daily Minutes of Commercial TV and BVOD 2010 – H1 2024

Whilst the trend is still declining, it’s not at the same rate as per the chart in Ofcom’s report and these are the commercial numbers that really matter to advertisers. We must also appreciate the viewing surge and subsequent slump caused by lockdown measures. Overlooking these anomalies and looking back over time shows that TV’s steady decline is the story of the last decade, coinciding with the rise and proliferation of streaming services.  

That said, underestimate linear TV at your peril – it still delivers significant reach and ability to drive change. Just look at the power of Mr Bates vs The Post Office and the volume of people who tuned into the European Football Championships. 

We cannot ignore the 16-34 aged elephant in the room, historically always the age bracket to watch less TV than anyone else, but this gulf has widened significantly. There are a multitude of factors that ladder up to why this is the case, early adoption of SVOD, lack of programmes made for the demographic, rise of mobile video consumption on services such as YouTube and TikTok to name but a few. However, commercial opportunities are growing in the space they have migrated to. According to Barb’s latest establishment survey of Q1 2024, 2.1 million of Netflix’s total 16.2 million subscriber households now consume via the ad-supported tier – that’s 7% of total UK households. For Disney+ just over half a million households choose the ad supported platform.  

Later this month Barb will release the Q2 survey where these numbers are expected to rise but will also include Amazon Prime video, where we estimate at least 80% of its 12.4 million household penetration are on an ad-supported tier – that’s a potential 10 million households we couldn’t reach commercially in these services which we now can. The average age per viewer on these platforms is also significantly lower than linear TV, helping fill the linear void from the great 16-34 exodus.  

Ultimately, Ofcom’s report has highlighted what we all know to be empirically correct – TV is fragmenting which has led to linear decline, but TV overall is in rude health. However, this demonstrates the importance of a holistic AV strategy for advertisers and that is why Advanced TV is such a critical component to any client’s media plan. The tactics of yesterday don’t work in today’s TV landscape, never mind tomorrow. We are blessed to live in a time of plentiful content and whilst we navigate our way through easily as consumers, it’s not as easy to mirror this in our commercial endeavours. Advanced TV at Medialab is a data-led, results driven linear and CTV solution that can help brands navigate and simplify the fragmented, complex landscape.  

Medialab continues to excel in Linear TV planning, negotiation, and optimisation, while also developing products that enable us to deliver accountable, data-driven campaigns across all Connected TV platforms.