Survey reveals over half of UK viewers believe ‘traditional TV’ will be dead by 2050
21% of UK viewers exclusively use streaming platforms for entertainment
Adobe Stock/Jon Anders Wiken
A recent survey delving into the UK’s television viewing habits and attitudes has found over half of Brits believe traditional television will be completely dead by 2050.
To understand where the nation’s viewing habits are heading, British gambling outfit Betway Casino surveyed 2,000 UK adults aged 25 and over to find out how they are watching and paying for TV today.
The survey found that one in five Brits (21%) exclusively use streaming platforms for entertainment, while over two-fifths (42%) watch a mix of both traditional TV, such as cable or satellite with scheduled programming, and streaming services.
With the rise of streaming services and changing preferences, the future of UK TV is uncertain, with over half of Brits believing traditional television will be completely dead by 2050.
The most significant change is generational, with nearly a third of 25- to-34-year-olds now watching TV exclusively via streaming platforms, with no use of traditional broadcast channels at all. In contrast, 42% of people aged 55 and over watch only traditional TV.
Screen time is booming in Britain, with the average adult now watching around 12 hours of content each week, spending over five hours watching traditional television, four and a half hours watching streaming services, and an additional two and a half on catch-up platforms like BBC iPlayer.
Brits are also spending over an hour a week scrolling TikTok and nearly two hours on YouTube, while traditional soaps are slipping in viewership.
Over two-thirds said the price of streaming isn’t worth it, while over half said the country’s TV licence, which funds the BBC, isn’t worth the money, according to Betway.
Meanwhile, more than half of those surveyed (56%) said they have no idea where their TV licence fee actually goes, and 66% believe traditional channels are stuck in a rut, repeating formats too often.
It comes as the BBC conducts a major online survey of its own, with audiences asked about the future of the organisation as part of the biggest public engagement exercise the corporation has ever undertaken.
Meanwhile, UK broadcasters continue to wrestle with the reality of their declining linear viewing figures and growing competition from online-only services.
Betway’s study also explored what the future holds for some of the UK’s biggest shows by using publicly available audience figures to project how those shows are likely to perform in the future if current trends continue.
It predicts Big Brother is set to end as soon as next year due to declining viewership, while Celebrity Big Brother is set to end in 2032.
Shows like EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale have all experienced notable and consistent declines in viewership in recent years. If these downward trends continue, EastEnders could potentially see its final episode air as soon as 2037, according to Betway.
Meanwhile, favourites such as Love Island and Strictly Come Dancing, as well as Dragons’ Den and Gogglebox, continue to maintain healthy viewership and are set to have their viewership increase in the years ahead.
It comes as Bristol-based research firm Digital i releases its latest report exploring the state of the post ‘peak TV’ content landscape, which confirms the significant drop off in commissioning at the streamers since 2023.
It has found since the end of 2023, the number of original series launched on Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Prime Video has declined, with 279 original shows launched in 2024, compared with 395 in 2022, across measured territories.
Digital i has tracked declining viewing share to original content, with viewing to licensed content overtaking viewing to originals in Q3 2023 across measured services and markets.
The company said part of this increased viewing to licensed content can be attributed to a nostalgia TV trend and the continuing popularity of legacy US dramas and sitcoms, such as Suits and Friends.
It found viewers watched more than two billion hours of medical drama Grey’s Anatomy globally in 2024.
The report also presents case studies examining shows that secured recommissions and those which were not renewed, highlighting a rising number of productions based on existing IP and the value of building a regional hit.
Netflix was the only service to have more shows (14) based on original concepts rather than titles based on existing IP enter its top 25 of 2024, ranked by number of accounts that viewed a show.
Digital i measures Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+ viewing across territories including the US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.
