UK's Young Adults Spending More Time on TikTok Than Watching TV

Young adults in the UK are spending more time scrolling on social media site TikTok than watching broadcast television, according to an Ofcom report on Wednesday that highlights the growing generational divide in media habits. From a report: In its annual survey of consumption trends, the media regulator found that those aged 16 to 24 spent an average of 53 minutes a day viewing traditional broadcast TV, just a third of the level a decade ago. By contrast, people over the age of 65 spent seven times as long in front of channels such as BBC One or ITV, viewing almost six hours' worth of broadcast TV a day -- a figure that has risen since 2011. The faster take-up of streaming services and social media among young people poses an ever greater challenge to broadcasters as they try to cope with an economic slowdown, satisfy their most loyal older viewers and invest to keep pace with fast-changing consumption habits.

traditional broadcast TV?

[OrangeTide]

I haven't bothered to set mine up after I moved 3 years ago. And I'm pretty sure I watch more TV than the average child these days.

Re:

[BackwardPawn]

What counts as broadcast TV? I also never bothered to hook up an antenna (and I'm not that young). Occasionally, I'll watch a show on Hulu after it aired on broadcast TV. Does that count? Wouldn't it just be better to compare traditional scripted/reality programming to TikTok? "Kids watch TikTok more than Netflix" would be more meaningful. This is like an experiment to study the behavior of young people as designed by an 80 year old.

Also, I feel a little sad for the people watching six hours of BBC

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[BackwardPawn]

Now that I think about it, BBC One is probably a step up from American broadcast networks.

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[Megane]

I get thirty channels here, minus a few more Spanish-language ones that I removed from the list. I still only watch stuff on six of them (three are PBS), and usually DVR-ed, but unlike cable I'm not paying for them.

So what?

[Snotnose]

They're still watching TV, just not the TV you watched in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s.

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[techno-vampire]

Magazines were created for women as a means of occupying time while taking care of children.

Funny, but Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] makes no mention of this. [citation needed]

I hardly use broadcast TV.

[John Allsup]

I do really appreciate the BBC, especially their online content, and think the license fee is worth it. But mostly I watch BBC on iPlayer (I enjoyed some of the proms last week). Most live TV I watch is sport via either BT Sport or Eurosport, or even Youtube. I have a large dvd and bluray collection on NAS, and a Prime and Disney+ subscription, so for films and series I turn there. And basically there's nothing much to watch on broadcast TV for me. There is more need for a national broadcaster and what it can offer, than the actual medium of over-the-air broadcast TV. The government should invest in improving the nation's broadband.

surprised they see any

[RhettLivingston]

They still watch that much broadcast TV in Britain? That just seems weird. I'm 57 and haven't watched traditional broadcast TV or cable in my home since 2003. 100% streaming or just browsing. I can't imagine suffering a commercial again.

Re: surprised they see any

[jemmyw]

BBC doesn't run advertising except for it's own content.

TV license

[kmoser]

Why would young adults pay the UK's TV tax when they can stream TikTok and YouTube for free?

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[OscarL]

That's true! There are a lot of great content for free, and not so much advertising

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[Megane]

Well at least you don't have to pay the licence fee to watch Techmoan every week!

Not young and don't TikTok

[bsdetector101]

Not young and don't TikTok and have watched 0% traditional broadcast TV in last 10 years if not longer ! I stream pretty much anything I want including sports for free.

Good sign

[groobly]

This is a good sign. They are more interested in creativity than drivel.