Terrestrial television channels are responding to changes in viewing habits, writes TERRY MURDEN
With President Trump’s legal action hanging over it, and lingering crises over disgraced presenters, the BBC must be taking some comfort from returning hit series that prove there is still plenty of life left in the corporation. It needs them more than ever amid existential threats to its audience and finances.
The Traitors kicked off 2026 with record viewing figures, while The Night Manager and Call the Midwife have also given the BBC a welcome new year lift.
The game show has been a consistent ratings success for the BBC since its launch in 2022. Its recent celebrity spin-off, which aired in the autumn, became a cultural phenomenon, attracting a staggering 11.1 million for its nail-biting finale.
The civilian series has introduced new twists to raise viewer interest and has promoted participants to TV and social media stardom, including the colourfully-attired and expressive Jessie who seemed to be wired to the mains electricity network and is the nearest the show has come to having a cartoon contestant.
Yet even shows that fall into the so-called ‘water cooler’ category have failed to stem a seemingly unstoppable trend. Viewers are deserting TV for YouTube which recently passed the monthly reach of the BBC and has become the go-to place for many younger viewers.
The viewing organisation Barb reported that YouTube had a three-minute monthly reach of 51.9 million viewers in the UK in December, surpassing 50.8 million for all BBC viewing.
BBC bosses are currently negotiating a renewal of its Charter, and how it is funded, with pressure to demonstrate more commercial self-sufficiency.
They have now conceded that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and plans to produce programmes specifically for YouTube aimed at younger audiences. It is likely that programmes that will appear on YouTube before being released on its own online platforms, such as iPlayer and Sounds. There is likely to be a news format to help counter the spread of misinformation over social media.
The shift underscores the difficulties of many traditional broadcasters in competing with the deep pockets of US streamers such as Netflix and Disney.
Embracing YouTube offers one potential solution. The BBC may be regularly thanking viewers for paying their licence fee, which currrently accounts for £3.8 billion of its £5.9bn annual income, but exposure to YouTube would enable it to generate a share of advertising revenue when programmes are watched outside the UK.
According to the internet, television and video website Informitv there have been notable international successes with programmes such as Bluey, which is produced by an Australian company and commissioned by the ABC with the BBC, with BBC Studios holding the global distribution and merchandising rights. It has had over 13 billion views on YouTube since it launched.
YouTube has already overtaken total viewing of ITV to become the second most watched source on television, a trend that will also raise concerns at STV which is in the throes of reorganising its operations and output as the drift hits the balance sheet.
STV could even face pressures – or opportunities – from its sister station. ITV is expected to argue that the growing dominance of platforms such as YouTube is why competition authorities should approve the proposed £1.6bn merger with Comcast’s Sky.
Terry Murden was Scotland Editor and Business Editor at The Sunday Times, Business Editor at The Scotsman, and Business and City Editor at Scotland on Sunday. He is now Editor of Daily Business
BBC Studios should have already turned Britbox International into a global version of BBC iPlayer and invest in producing high-quality drama and documentaries for it.
Instead, the BBC introduced a PAYWALL to their BBC,com website that no one outside the UK uses.
I’m more worried about the Americans taking over ITV than the BBC rotting away.