Netflix overtook BBC1 for the first time as it became the most watched TV service in the UK for three months last year.
New viewing figures from BARB, the UK’s official ratings body, showed that Netflix’s audience reach overtook BBC1 in September, October, and November 2024.
For the consecutive three months Netflix’s averaged audience stood at 43.2m, compared with BBC1’s 42.3m viewers.
BBC1 pulled ahead again in December, despite Netflix posting a record reach of 46.4M after streaming series including UK original Black Doves.
BBC1’s reach was 48.4m last month, thought to be put down to festive hits including Gavin & Stacey and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
Despite being back and forth with the Beeb, Netflix has been consistently ahead of ITV1, the UK’s second-largest TV network, since March 2023.
ITV1 overtook Netflix briefly last summer, when its audience jumped up during Euro 2024 before dropping dramatically again in August.
BARB measures the number of people who watched a television service for at least three consecutive minutes in a month.
The figures date back to October 2022, when Netflix first signed up to be measured by BARB in the UK.
Netflix’s audience reach overtook BBC1 in September, October, and November last year
Netflix posed a record reach of 46.4M after streaming series including UK original Black Doves in December
BBC1’s reach was 48.4m last month, thought to be put down to festive hits including Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The finale of Gavin and Stacey was another contributor to BBC1 taking the top spot back from Netflix
The BBC’s total audience reach in December was 52.7m, compared with Netflix’s 46.4m and Netflix is, however consistently ahead of Channel 4 and Channel 5/Paramount.
The new figures come as it was revealed less than half of 16 to 24-year-olds are now watching traditional TV – live and catch-up programming on a television set at home – each week.
Just 48 per cent of young adults tuned in during an average week last year, compared with 76 per cent just five years before (2018), according to Ofcom’s annual Media Nations report.
They watched traditional TV for an average of 33 minutes each day, down 16 per cent year-on-year.