A streaming takeover is threatening the future of the BBC, with viewers bypassing traditional TV and heading straight to YouTube.
The video-sharing platform is now the second most-watched “TV” service in the UK, having overtaken ITV. It now has the BBC in its sights, Ofcom’s 2025 Media Nations survey found.
Gen Alpha – those born after 2010 – are turning to YouTube first on their TV set at home, while the over 55s have doubled the time they spend watching videos on the platform.
The challenge faced by traditional broadcasters is stark, with less than half of 16-24-year-olds now watching broadcast TV on a weekly basis.
Ofcom warned the BBC and other public service broadcasters that they risk drifting into irrelevance unless they make more shows specifically for YouTube, giving viewers the kind of content they want to watch.
Younger adults aged 16 to 34 are driving the trend, watching 18 minutes of YouTube a day on TV, while one in five children aged four to 15 head straight to the app as soon as they turn the set on. If that generation never gets into the habit of looking for BBC shows, the broadcaster’s future could be bleak.
square LICENCE FEE Benefits claims cost the BBC £185m in free TV licences for over-75s
Read More
“Scheduled TV is increasingly alien to younger viewers, with YouTube the first port of call for many when they pick up the TV remote,” said Ed Leighton, Ofcom’s interim group director for strategy and research.
“But we’re also seeing signs that older adults are turning to the platform as part of their daily media diet too.”
Channel 4 is putting more of its programmes directly onto YouTube, where it can share in the resulting advertising revenues.
But the BBC currently prefers to run taster clips of its programmes on YouTube while guiding on-demand viewers to its own iPlayer to watch complete shows.
Hoeweve the figures were not all bad news for the BBC – it was still the most-watched broadcaster in 2024 among all individuals, accounting for 19 per cent of all in-home video viewing.
YouTube was the second-most-watched media service (14 per cent) ahead of ITV (12 per cent), Ofcom found.
With a further 300,000 households cancelling their licence fee last year, the drift to streaming platforms could make the BBC’s case for a universal licence fee harder to argue in discussions with ministers this year over a new Charter – which sets out how the corporation should be funded..
The BBC is facing a pincer threat from YouTube, which is free, and subscription services like Netflix, which is now a fixture in 17.4 million UK households (59 per cent).
YouTube is no longer just the home for prank videos and short-form content. It is increasingly hosting full-length programmes, such as Piers Morgan’s Uncensored, which has four million subscribers, as well as game shows and other entertainment content, Ofcom said.
Netflix drama Adolescence topped the most-watched programmes of 2025 up to end of March (Ofcom)Although the BBC is cautious about embracing YouTube, Director-General Tim Davie said in May that the BBC wants to “dramatically increase” its news presence on the platform and is “already making progress” on this front.
BBC impartiality rules restrict the broadcaster from making the kind of highly-opinionated talk programmes, like Morgan’s, which perform well on YouTube.
Netflix, with its £15bn programming budget, attracts subscribers through the kind of high-end drama the BBC and other terrestrial broadcasters can no longer fund without help from international partners.
The acclaimed drama Adolescence was the most-watched TV event of the first quarter of 2025, with 12.2 million viewers on Netflix.
The question of sports
Despite the increased competition, audience reach for the BBC’s TV channels actually held up well in 2024, Ofcom found.
A major contributor was the success of the one-off Gavin & Stacey finale, seen by 18.6 million viewers on TV and iPlayer over Christmas, as well as live sport.
square TELEVISION BBC Proms turn to 'ravers' and Insta in bid to attract younger audience
Read More
The 2024 men’s Euros football (12.5 million watched the England v Spain final) and the Olympics helped the BBC stabilise its audience.
But with the corporation forced to make annual savings totalling £700m by 2028, it is struggling to find the resources to retain all of its rights.
Streamers are eating into its sport portfolio, with Warner Brothers Discovery paying €1.3bn for “all you can eat” European TV and digital rights to the Olympic Games.
This left the BBC with just one TV channel and a single live stream showing the action from Paris 2024. “As much as we’d like to, we can’t buy everything we want,” the BBC told disappointed viewers, citing pressure on the now £174.50 licence fee.
BBC insiders believe the £14.50 monthly cost of the licence fee will look increasingly good value as the streamers consistently raise their prices, in order to cover their multi-billion-dollar programming investment.
Ofcom found that people are citing cost as a reason to unsubscribe from streamers or trade down to cheaper advertising tiers. Netflix now charges £18.99 a month for its Premium package, which lets viewers watch on four devices simultaneously.
The proportion of Netflix subscribers using its “standard with ads” £5.99 subscription tier increased sharply to 28 per cent in the first quarter of 2025, compared to 13 per cent in Q1 2024.
The BBC said it welcomed Ofcom’s recognition of its role in bringing people together, adding that the report found the “reach of BBC channels across all age groups remained stable year-on-year, maintaining the BBC’s role as the most-watched broadcaster or service”.
“While BBC iPlayer was the UK’s fastest-growing long-form video-on-demand service in 2024/25, we know that audience needs are rapidly changing, and so we continue to transform what we do on digital platforms.”
Hence then, the article about why the bbc should be worried about its future was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Why the BBC should be worried about its future )
Also on site :
- GCE Global Solutions Corp. Announces Strategic Acquisition of GCE Payroll Advisers Inc. to Strengthen Global EOR and Payroll Platform
- Trump Wants To”Unleash Hell” In 2026; POTUS Tries To Go Full Maximus With A Misguided ‘Gladiator’ Flex
- Parents of Campbell Hall student killed in the school’s parking lot file wrongful death suit