If you’re watching less live scheduled television, you’re not the only one. Broadcast TV has just experienced the biggest annual decline in weekly audience reach since records began, according to Ofcom research. Younger viewers led the charge towards streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+, but now older viewers are turning away in record numbers too, the figures show.
These findings will no doubt feed the argument that live television will one day die and streaming will replace everything. But we’re not there yet. While viewing is down, we’re still gravitating to live TV when it really matters.
Millions of us tuned in to the Strictly Come Dancing final last December and the king’s coronation in May. Seven days later, the Eurovision song contest had the highest viewership for a BBC grand final since modern records began, with 11 million people watching at the peak. And then there’s sport. Watching it live will always be a thing because, in many cases, watching it live is the point.
But there is no denying that traditional TV watching is on a downward trajectory, which makes my heart sink. We have a lot to lose if it goes away. For one thing, its format and structure is an artform. Programmes are masterfully curated by schedulers who still keep the timings of big shows under wraps until close to transmission so rivals don’t find out. It might seem old hat, but the limited scope of the schedule means that someone has done the hardest work narrowing down what to watch for you. We might have nearly all the greatest television ever made at our disposal, but the abundance of choice can be bewildering.
Despite the hype of streaming, releasing all the episodes of a series at once can derail the collective viewing experience and cause shows to drop out of pop culture relevance prematurely. Some viewers race ahead while others watch more slowly. Take last month’s highly anticipated release of the second season of American comedy-drama The Bear to Disney+. With all of the episodes being released at once, it is often unclear to viewers where their friends and colleagues are up to in the plot, making watercooler chats or social media conversations about specific moments harder to come by. The Bear received a five-star review in the Guardian. But beyond critics’ first impressions, the media are equally in the dark about how many people are watching and where they are up to (or even if anyone is still watching at all, since some streamers don’t share viewing figures), which means that the hype can subside quickly.
It never used to be this complicated. There is something to be said for the simplicity of watching live TV; and knowing that everyone in the country is at the same point in the story, from the prime minister to your mum, can be a real thrill. Cult TV moments become national talking points, from that scene in the kitchen in the finale of Happy Valley to everyone going ugh at the end of Line of Duty. That extends to typically British nonsense, too, such as the classic Come Dine With Me episode that features the “Dear Lord, what a sad little life, Jane” exchange, or when comedian Joe Lycett claimed that he was “very rightwing” on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Interestingly, some viewers are sticking with scheduled television even though they can stream the same show in full before it airs. Nearly 2 million people watched the final episode of the harrowing, yet essential, Sarah Phelps drama The Sixth Commandment on BBC One, even though episodes were available to watch ahead of time on BBC iPlayer.
A big question, given the decline in TV viewing, is what will happen to the broadcasters? While BBC iPlayer and ITVX have seen a big boost in the number of people watching shows, the overall decline in live TV viewing has big implications for programming that relies on loyal, daily viewers, such as Britain’s soaps, which viewers on streaming services will be less likely to get into the habit of watching.
Public service broadcasters are still attracting viewers, but the number of shows that have pulled in more than 4 million people has halved since 2014, as audiences continue to fragment. What we stand to lose in a world without live TV, we don’t necessarily gain in the wealth of content available to stream. Scrolling endlessly on a streamer to find something to watch is bad enough, but worse is feeling you may be the only person watching it.
Scott Bryan is a journalist, TV critic and broadcaster
