Ofcom’s fifth annual Media Nations report, which is a research report for industry, policymakers, academics and consumers, the objectives of which are to review key trends in the media sector, finds that younger adults now watch almost seven times less scheduled TV than those aged 65 and over, as the generation gap in media habits reaches a record high.

The report finds that people aged 16-24 spend less than an hour (53 minutes) in front of broadcast TV in an average day, a fall of two-thirds in the last ten years. In contrast, those aged 65 and over still spend around a third of their waking day enjoying broadcast TV, sitting down for almost six hours (5 hours and 50 minutes) daily.

Around a fifth of homes (5.2 million) now subscribe to all three of the most popular platforms, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, costing around £300 per year.

While public service broadcasters have continued to see both audiences and levels of viewing fall, there is better news for their on-demand “player” apps. The average time spent watching services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub and All 4 increased to 15 minutes per day, up by three minutes per person per day, bucking the trend of post-pandemic declines in viewing time. To access the report, click here. To read Ofcom’s news release, click here.