Visions of the family huddled around Netflix this Christmas remained a dream in the mind of an SVOD giant, as the BBC dominated UK viewing for the 2024 Christmas period.
According to the latest Barb data, BBC One was responsible for the 14 most-watched shows of the Christmas week (23rd-29th December), led by the Gavin & Stacey finale, which attracted 19 million viewers across linear and iPlayer. The new Wallace & Gromit film took second place, with over 16 million viewers.
In fact only one SVOD title made it into the top 20 most-viewed programmes; the new series of Netflix’s Squid Game scraped into 20th place, with over 4 million viewers trying the deadly Korean format instead of charades. ITV was the only other broadcaster in the top 20, thanks to The 1% Club and Coronation Street.
Broadcasters hold their ground
It is unsuprising then that the broadcasters continue to hold the lion’s share of viewing time. Looking at the full month of December 2024, broadcaster viewing (including BVOD) accounted for 61.88 percent of total viewing, followed by video sharing services (predominantly YouTube) at 20.11 percent, then SVOD/AVOD services (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+) on 18 percent.
Taken together however, the non-broadcaster categories make up almost 40 percent of viewing, slowly encroaching on the UK broadcasters’ viewing share.
Broadcaster viewing in December has been in steady decline over the past two years, according to Barb figures, but remains more than three times the size of time spent with both SVOD and video sharing services. And SVOD viewing appears to have plateaud since 2022, as cost-conscious consumers limit their uptake of paid subscriptions.
Video sharing services (which are usually free to access) have therefore overtaken the paid subscription offerings, growing from 45 average daily minutes in 2022, to 51 minutes in 2024.
That said, Netflix viewing gained slightly in December 2024 with 26 average daily minutes of viewing time, up from around 24 minutes in December 2023. While Amazon is holding steady around the 8-9 minute mark, most other channels and services appear to be losing viewers to the growth of video sharing. And despite dominating the Christmas schedules, the BBC has fallen below the 60-minute mark in the last two years.
Disney’s loss is Netflix’s gain
Looking at the SVOD/AVOD services, this year saw the introduction of Paramount+ into Barb’s reporting, though the streaming service only accounted for 0.53 percent of total viewing in December. However, Barb’s latest establishment survey found that 9.4 percent of UK homes had access to Paramount+ in Q3 2024, and the TV measurement body named Yellowstone among the shows attracting viewers on SVOD services.
Meanwhile Disney+ viewing was down by an average 2.6 minutes per day, compared with December 2023, and Netflix viewing was up by the same amount. This trend follows a reduction in UK homes with access to Disney+, according the Q3 Barb survey, which also saw a rise in Netflix households.
