Around 11.8 million (56%) of 18-44 year olds in the UK are currently using someone else’s credentials to access a streaming service.
The LADbible Group TV Report into viewing trends has been released ahead of the Edinburgh TV Festival.
It highlights some of the challenges faced by streaming services as they bid to attract paying subscribers in the midst of the Cost of Living crisis.
Over 65% of Gen Z viewers (18-24 year olds) surveyed admit they use someone else’s streaming service login details and are the generation most likely to do so (2.4 times more than 35-44 year olds). At 44% watching live or streaming TV content is second only to music (75%) in terms of most essential activities in their lives 18-24 year olds surveyed spend an average of 2.9 hours per day watching some form of TV content with social media taking up 3.5 hours.
Our survey produced a fascinating and sometimes surprising mix of results. We found reports the cite the end of young people’s interest in watching TV content to be exaggerated,” said Anna-Lee Bridgstock, Director of Data, Intelligence and Planning at LADbible Group. “The cost of living crisis also poses a huge challenge for subscription services in convincing viewers to subscribe to paid for services and password sharing has become commonplace.”
Nearly three quarters (74%) of 25-44 year olds do not feel the TV Licence fee represents good value for money – whilst 70% of Gen Z audience surveyed do not know, or cannot identify the correct price of a current regular UK TV licence.
Following its return to screens in February, the BBC’s youth-focused channel BBC Three has a long way to go in creating stand-out content for younger audiences as nearly two thirds (63%) were unable to name a show on the channel.
However, the BBC’s entertainment is the genre that those surveyed felt was most valuable to them – nearly double that of sports content – news was the third most valued content genre. 40% of 25-34 year olds cited Facebook as the place they get their news.
