The BBC iPlayer catalogue is approaching the number of hours of programming available on Netflix, although both offer less than Amazon Prime Video. They are all well ahead of other players in the United Kingdom. In its annual report on the BBC, the regulator outlines the challenges facing the corporation and the requirement for a regulatory regime to support its public purposes.
Amazon Prime Video had 66,245 hours of programming available in 2024. Netflix had 49,684. The BBC iPlayer had 44,642 hours, of which about 35% was produced by the BBC. The size of the BBC online catalogue has increased by 35% since the previous year.
The numbers were collated by Ampere Analysis and reported by the communications regulator Ofcom as part of its annual report on the BBC.
To put that in perspective, the BBC produced 49,145 hours of television output over the year, of which 8,601 was on BBC One and 7,764 was on BBC Two.
So, the two main channels between them offered about a third as many hours of output as available on the BBC iPlayer.
Looking at first-run originations from the United Kingdom, the BBC output 21,587 hours, but 8,030 of that was news and 3,686 was from parliament.
There were 6,327 hours of first-run output on BBC One, of which 3,607 was news and current affairs but only 145 hours was drama excluding soaps, the lowest
level of output since the pandemic.
The report shows that the BBC iPlayer has a 15-minute weekly reach of 31% for those aged over 16, compared to 64% for BBC television. Among those aged 16-35, the BBC iPlayer weekly reach is 24%, compared to just 38% for television.
Ofcom highlights a range of challenges faced by the BBC and the broader public service media sector. They are:
- Prominence and discoverability on third-party platforms
- Stable and adequate funding to sustain a broad range of programming
- Urgent clarity on how television will be distributed in the future
- More ambitious partnerships amongst public service media providers
- Investment in media literacy
- Streamlined regulation that strips away unnecessary restrictions.
The report says that with the review of the BBC charter imminent, there is an opportunity for the government to support a sustainable BBC that delivers for all audiences, produces important programming, some of may not be delivered by the market, and continues to support the broader creative economy.
Ofcom says it will be discussing its findings with government, including how the regulatory framework can be updated to ensure that the BBC is able to adapt quickly to changing audience preferences.