Over a quarter of all television viewing in the United Kingdom in 2025 was through Freeview digital terrestrial television. It was the single most popular way for viewers to access programming, above satellite, cable, smart televisions, or any other form of distribution, including online. A report from the audience measurement organisation Barb shows that 26% of all viewing on a television set in the United Kingdom was through Freeview in 2025. That was unchanged from 26% in 2024, down from 28% in 2023, and 31% in 2022. That certainly represents a decline, but it hardly suggests that it is time to turn off the transmitters.
Viewing of broadcaster apps has grown from 8% to 18% in four years, but this is by far from being the way that most television is watched.
The second most popular way of viewing was through Sky. Barb does not break out the figures for satellite and online, but together they made of 22% of viewing in 2025. That proportion has also declined, from 25% the previous year, 27% in 2023, and 28% in 2022.
Cable television viewing has also declined, with Virgin Media 02 accounting for 9% of viewing in the United Kingdom, down from 12% in 2022.
Meanwhile, the share of viewing directly on smart televisions has grown to 20% from 15%.
The viewing of YouTube on television has doubled to 10% of all viewing from 5% in 2022.
That said, traditional terrestrial, satellite and cable platforms made up over 60% of all viewing on television in 2025.
Live viewing still makes up 45% of all identified viewing on television, but that is down from 60% at the start of 2022.
The amount of time-shifted viewing on the same day as broadcast is about 10% of all television viewing, but less than half of that is through broadcaster apps, with the rest through personal video recorders.
Broadcaster apps make up about 18% of all television viewing, but the growth of such viewing has not made up for the decline of viewing to live and on-demand broadcast programming, which is now less than 70% of all television viewing, down from over 80% over four years.
The balance has been taken up by the growth of other online video services, which make up over 30% of all television viewing.
Together with broadcaster apps, online now accounts for 42% of all television viewing, up from 26% in 2022, but still not the majority of minutes viewed.
Despite what many people may believe, most television viewing is still driven by the broadcast schedule. It remains a habitual medium, driven by diurnal routines, the regular production of programmes, and events, both real and contrived.
Broadcast programming makes up 70% of all viewing, and two thirds of that is viewed at the time of transmission, with over 80% of broadcaster viewing on the same day as transmission.
That means well over half of all viewing on television is determined by the day of broadcast, in other words the programme schedule.
The report from Barb is required reading for anyone interested in how people watch television. There is no doubt that television viewing is in transition, but the numbers deserve careful consideration.
“What emerges from the evidence is not a paradigm shift, but a rebalancing,” as Justin Sampson, the chief executive of Barb observes. “All in all, the evidence and perspectives in this review point to a viewing world defined less by disruption than by adaptation — more connected, more nuanced and more resilient than the clichés and binary viewpoints would suggest.”
What People Watched in 2025 is published by Barb and is available from its web site.