With a population of 67 million, the UK has long held a strong political and economic influence on the world stage. With an internet penetration of 95%, the UK remains one of the world’s leaders in globalization, connectivity and media influence.
UK Media landscape at a glance
The UK media landscape consists of a highly partisan commercial national press and a public service broadcasting system dominated by the BBC.
According to a study conducted by Reuters Institute, as of 2015, online has overtaken TV as the primary source for news, with 74% of respondents getting their news online versus 60% from TV. Social media as a news source has risen from 20% in 2013 to 41% in 2021, while print media has seen a precipitous decline from 60% to 15% during the same time.
While the press remains strong, the UK is seeing a shift to digital news sources. Legacy media organizations have moved to make their content available online through dedicated websites and mobile apps.
UK’s broadcast landscape is largely dominated by the BBC
Television
UK television consists of hundreds of free-to-view channels, and more through premium television services. Multichannel broadcasters dominate the TV industry, with the BBC, ITV Network, Channel Four Television Corporation and Sky being the biggest players. For news broadcasts, BBC News (TV & Radio) leads the way in weekly reach at 57%, followed by ITV News at 31%, Sky News at 21% and Channel 4 News at 11%.
The BBC is the world’s oldest and largest broadcaster and the undisputed king of UK television. Established under a Royal Charter as a public service, the BBC does not show any traditional advertising, instead airing adverts for its own programming during commercial breaks. The BBC has 25 channels, all of which are free to watch. BBC One and BBC Two are the most popular channels among domestic viewers.
Sky Limited is the UK’s main premium platform, offering subscribers hundreds of channels not available on free-to-view platforms, as well as its own premium channels and exclusive content.
Radio
BBC Radio dominates the airwaves in the UK. The BBC World Service radio network is broadcast in 33 languages globally and is separated into ten national networks and 40 local stations domestically. The most popular station by listener numbers is BBC Radio 2, followed by BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio 1. Overall, there are around 600 licensed radio stations in the country.
Radio listenership has remained remarkably consistent over the last decade, with 89% of the population still tuning in every week.
Public service broadcasting characterized by political neutrality
Statutory regulation overseen by the regulatory body Ofcom requires all news produced by television and radio broadcasters to remain impartial and balanced in coverage. Moreover, the BBC follows its own editorial codes and guidelines to ensure that its reporting is neutral and diverse.
Regardless, perhaps fueled by the political divisions that exist within UK’s population, public trust in broadcast media remains lukewarm, with trust scores for BBC News at 62%, ITV News at 61%, Channel 4 News at 58%, and Sky News at 54%.
Partisan print media in a state of decline
With 11 national daily newspapers and 10 Sunday titles, the UK has a larger national press than such countries as the US, France and Germany.
UK newspapers (taken from Media Diversity)
Newspapers are divided into two sectors: broadsheet, and tabloid. These divisions are based on physical size, quantity and quality of content, and values, with broadsheets offering higher quality content in large format, while tabloids are dominated by headlines and sensational stories in a more compact form on the other end of the spectrum.
Large tabloid newspapers include The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, and Morning Star, while the major broadsheet publications include The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, i, The Guardian, The Independent, and Financial Times.
Also in circulation are ‘freesheets,’ with the Metro and Evening Standard leading the way in circulation.
Print newspapers, which are still mainly distributed through newsstands, have been in decline for some time, while online newspaper readership has been on the rise. Since the pandemic, print newspaper circulation has been in a plummet, with local and national newspapers down by an average of 10% as of 2021, and freesheets down by 40%.
Partisanship in the press
Strongly funded by advertising, the commercial press is allowed to operate independently of government and party control. The national press exerts a great deal of political influence, often closely reflecting divisions in political parties, and adopting distinct political orientations despite no official links to any political party.
Partisanship in the UK press (taken from The Guardian)
These political orientations in news reporting, especially in tabloids, are more apparent than in most countries. The line between fact and opinion that we see in objective reporting is often blurred in British publications. Even broadsheets are guilty of partisan reporting, albeit through a much more subtle, interpretive style than with tabloids.
There has been growing concern with the degree of political parallelism in the UK press, as publications continue to trend towards disproportionately right-wing leaning. In the 2017 election, only the Guardian and The Daily Mirror (along with their Sunday publications, The Observer and Sunday Mirror), supported the opposition Labour party.
As newspaper sales and TV viewership decline, broadcast media and publications are transitioning to the digital realm
Fueled by smartphones, more and more people are turning online for their news
Surpassing TV in 2015, the internet (including social media) has become the UK’s primary source for news. Perhaps a major driver of this trend is widespread smartphone access. There now exists more mobile phone connections than the UK’s total population, at 71.84 million (105.1%). More telling though, the number who receive news through their mobile device (68%) has doubled in the last 9 years.
In terms of weekly reach, BBC News online leads the way online by a wide margin, reaching 46% of the UK audience. Guardian online trails far behind at second, with a weekly reach of 17%, followed by Sky News online and Mail online at 14%.
BBC News online (taken from BBC)
Social media is slowly growing as a source of news as well, up from 20% to 41% in the last 9 years. Despite this trend, trust in news on social media remains very low at 6%.
Newspapers moving online
Most UK newspapers now exist in both print and digital forms with a notable exception being the Independent, which in 2016 ceased offering print newspapers and went fully digital. Most digital newspapers are free to access, though some have started experimenting with a variety of different payment models.
The Times and the Financial Times are behind a hard paywall with no freely available content. Other outlets such as the Independent offer limited free content, with additional content available for subscribers. In 2016, The Guardian began asking readers for one-time contributions to support their journalism, and have expanded the revenue generated from people subscribed as ‘members’ or ‘supporters’ to include a variety of additional content such as podcasts and expert discussions.
The Guardian’s online platform (taken from The Guardian)
The UK also has a large and growing number of online-only media outlets, mostly focused on local news or news from a specific ideological angle (e.g. the Canary). Apart from online newspaper publications, Facebook introduced its news service in January of 2021, involving considerable payments to major publishers.
Subscribership remains limited despite accelerated growth
Accelerated by the pandemic, the UK has seen accelerated growth in digital newspaper subscriptions. As of 2021, the Telegraph and the Times had approximately 400,000 digital subscribers, while the Guardian claims 900,000 are regularly paying for its online journalism through subscriptions to their apps and donations.
Despite growth in subscribers, only 8% currently pay for online news. This may be in part due to free news content still being widely available online.
UK viewers are replacing linear TV with OTT and on-demand services
According to the findings from the Audience Project Insights 2022 report, a quarter of UK viewers stated they are watching less linear TV, instead opting to stream or download their programming. The report also found that weekly linear TV viewers have dropped from 79% to 69% since last year. The study also found that only 47% of UK respondents see themselves still watching linear TV in five years’ time, down from 58% in 2020. 26% of respondents claimed to be “pure streamers,” who no longer watch any linear TV.
Despite this shift towards on-demand television streaming, traditional TV still remains strong for the time being. As of 2021, 75% of total TV viewing hours are still committed to linear TV, and just over half (52%) of connected TV devices access both linear and OTT content. 44% still access linear TV exclusively, while only 4% exclusively access OTT content.
How can iSpider Help?
Especially considering the political divides that exist both within the press and general population, the UK’s media landscape can be tricky to navigate.
Having an international PR and marketing agency like iSpider Media by your side can help your brand break into this well-established yet evolving market. Our team can research your target audience and market environment, to help craft a PR strategy that works within the UK’s media ecosystem.
References:
- Reuters Institute, 2021 Digital News Report (United Kingdom)
- Media Landscapes, United Kingdom Overview
- Television Broadcast (TVB), UK Television’s Biggest Media Companies and Channels
- Slideshare, The mass media in Britain (part 1)
- You Gov, A look at the changing media landscape in the UK and Europe in 2021
- Hootsuite; We are Social, Digital 2022: The Evolution of the Digital Landscape in the UK
- The Media Leader, Quarter of UK viewers ‘replacing linear TV with streaming’
