Ofcom Media Nations: Netflix Chosen Over BBC By UK Audiences

Netflix has narrowly become UK audiences’ first port of call.

According to Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report, 26% of UK viewers in 2025 said the streamer is where they turn to first when thinking about what to watch, ahead of the BBC on 25% and well up on ITV (15%) and YouTube (10%).

The figures mark a shift from the prior year, which was 28% for the BBC and 23% for Netflix, although an Ofcom spokeswoman said there have been some changes in methodology so these numbers are indicative only.

Broken down by age, the figures shift vastly, with 36% of 16-24 year olds opting for Netflix first over just 14% for the BBC. At the other end of the age scale, 5% of over-75s choose Netflix first while 48% switch on the 100-year-old national broadcaster.

The regulator’s research comes after several years of Netflix making big UK hits like Adolescence, The Gentlemen and Baby Reindeer. The BBC, meanwhile, is renegotiating its funding model and has floated forcing streaming subscribers to pay the £180 ($240) TV licence fee even if they don’t watch the BBC.

Ofcom’s research also found that more adults associate Netflix with “high quality content,” “content that is relevant to me” and “creative content” than the BBC, with YouTube topping the corporation on the latter. The BBC ranked higher than Netflix and YouTube in areas like “content that offers a different point of view from my own.”

Thankfully for the BBC, far more adults still associate it with British drama (66%) than Netflix, although given the streamer is American, Netflix executives may have been quietly impressed by its figure of 24%, which was only just behind the UK’s Channel 5 (now 5) on 28%.

In particular, 2025 saw a “pronounced” number of older viewers flock to drama on streaming platforms, Ofcom found, with average hours watched by audiences over the age of 75 skyrocketing by 56% to 36 hours per person per year, while for 55-74 year olds the figure rose 28% to 85 hours per person per year.

The BBC and Netflix were neck-and-neck for most-watched content of 2025 at four apiece in the top 10, with KPop Demon Hunters topping the list with 24.4 million viewers, ahead of Adolescence with 16 million for its most-watched episode and the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors at 14.8 million.

The streamers also had a good year financially in the UK. Revenues for these big players shot up 18% to £5.2B, which Ofcom put down to “subscription price increases rather than subscriber growth.” During this period, the proportion of advertising tier subscribers to the likes of Netflix and Disney+ rose rapidly, Ofcom said. Pay-TV revenues were also up 4% to £6.2B.

Third-party spend record

Last year was dominated by chatter around a scripted co-production crisis but in the end 2025 proved a record year in terms of third-party funding for broadcaster content.

This figure rose by more than 10% to £748M, with high-profile examples including the BBC and Prime Video’s The Night Manager and Richard Gadd’s new show Half Man for the BBC and HBO. Third-party funding doesn’t only incorporate co-productions but includes the lucrative UK high-end TV tax credit and distributor advances.

Unsurprisingly, the majority (around two thirds) of third-party spend went on drama but there were increases in lower-budget genres like factual and children’s.

Despite the 2025 record, Ofcom said “challenges” remain with third-party funding as “the global streaming market continues to prioritise projects with international appeal and full rights ownership.”