Streamer growth “decelerated significantly” in the UK last year, according to Ofcom’s all-encompassing Media Nations report, which found Broadcaster VoD (BVoD) revenue topping the £1B ($1.34B) mark for the first time.
After two years of rapid 20% growth, American juggernauts including Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ saw UK revenue rise just over 10% in 2024 to £4.37B.
The UK regulator put this down to “market maturation and slowing subscriber uptake,” while noting the figure is of course still increasing. In the qualitative section of Media Nations, the main reasons floated by subscribers for ditching subscriptions centered on cost, with 22% saying Netflix is “too expensive.”
Streamers have responded to a subs plateau by doubling down on their ad-tiers in order to continue driving profit, Ofcom said. In Q1 2025, UK subscribers using Netflix’s ad tier doubled from the previous year to 28%. For Disney+, this figure more-than tripled to 23%.
The number of UK households who said they subscribe to any streamer plateaued yet again at around two-thirds (68%), having been stuck on that figure since the pandemic came to an end. Netflix remains the top SVoD with 59%, ahead of Prime Video on 46% and Disney+ on 25%.
As the broadcasters battle to remain relevant in a world of mega-saturated viewing, there was good news for BVoD players, which saw revenue rise more steeply than streamers by 15% to top the £1B mark. BVoD including ITVX, Channel 4 and 5 now accounts for a quarter of total broadcaster advertising revenues, while BBC iPlayer had a particularly good year and now accounts for 22% of all BBC viewing.
In Ofcom’s mind, broadcasters spent the year “sharpening digital strategies to shift linear TV viewers to streaming and engage new audiences.”
As discussed plentifully over the past few weeks, YouTube is of course also making a difference in this space. The Google-owned behemoth is now the second most-watched service in the UK, behind the BBC and ahead of ITV, Ofcom found. Younger adults are driving the trend but viewing from over-55s to YouTube nearly doubled last year, the regulator added. Half of the platform’s top-trending videos now more closely resemble traditional TV, including long-form interviews and game shows.
Last week, Ofcom’s report into the future of public service media, which gravely posited that “time is running out” to save the sector, urged the UK government to update “prominence” laws to make pubcaster content more discoverable on YouTube. Despite Deadline’s frequent requests for comment, YouTube is yet to respond on whether it thinks this is a good idea.
High-end TV tumbles
‘Gavin & Stacey’. Image: BBC/Baby Cow Productions/Neil Bennett
Elsewhere, the annual Media Nations tome found that the number of high-end TV shows made in the UK tumbled by nearly 20% to 181 last year.
As the BBC says it is facing a scripted co-pro crisis with American giants rowing back from co-productions, the number of ‘inward investment and co-production’ projects slid nearly 13% to 109. Domestic projects, however, fell even more sharply by 26% to 72, according to Ofcom, starkly illustrating that the issue is multifaceted.
Third-party spend on drama fell 12% but rose by an impressive 79% in comedy, children’s and for movies. “This diversification reflects evolving funding partnerships, although third- party financing remains unpredictable and PSBs face challenges in securing multiple financing partners,” added Ofcom.
Overall the BBC had the best year of the broadcasters, spending an additional £111M on content while ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5’s collective spend fell by £57M. The recent BBC Annual Report showed record licence fee income and commercial revenue.
BBC content also occupied the top two spaces in the UK most-watched list in the form of Gavin and Stacey and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowlthe latter of which airs on Netflix outside the UK.
