More than 28 million homes in the UK have a television with the ability to sit and watch some form of streaming service like Netflix, Sky, Amazon or NOW TV – but just how long are we spending in front of the TV every day? We analysed all the latest statistics to see how glued we are to our screens.
We all love to keep up to date with our favourite TV shows, but just how many homes in the UK don’t have a TV at all?
TV ownership has been seeing a steady increase year-on-year. In 2019 more than 28.5 million of us have at least 1 TV in our home. Explore the graph below to see how TV ownership has increased over the last seven years.
| Year | Number of TVs |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 28.5 million |
| 2018 | 28.3 million |
| 2017 | 28 million |
| 2016 | 27.9 million |
| 2015 | 27.5 million |
| 2014 | 27.3 million |
| 2013 | 27.4 million |
In a modern household, owning more than one television is not unusual. We now have TVs in our bedrooms, kitchens and even bathrooms! How many households in the UK have more than one TV?
Over 15.3 million households in the UK have more than 1 TV, while just 1.59 million don’t have a TV at all. Take a look at the chart below to see a detailed breakdown of the number of TVs per household.
| Number of TVs | Amount of homes 2018 | Amount of homes 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| 0 TVs | 1.37 million | 1.59 million |
| 1 TV | 11.85 million | 11.38 million |
| 2 TVs | 8.94 million | 8.73 million |
| 3 TVs | 4.03 million | 3.99 million |
| 4 TVs | 1.59 million | 1.74 million |
| 5+ TVs | 0.8 million | 0.87 million |
You might have been told that watching too much TV can give you square eyes, but that isn’t stopping some Brits from racking up dozens of hours of viewing time every week. We analysed just how many hours a week we spend watching TV. Bear in mind the figures below are just for television shows and catch-up services, so they don’t include anything watched on streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
With the introduction of streaming services and catch-up TV, it is now possible to binge-watch an entire series in one sitting. So just how often are Brits binge-watching their favourite shows? For these results, binge-watching was classified as watching more than one episode in one sitting.
16- to 24-year-olds are the most likely to binge-watch TV shows, with 82% reporting to do it monthly, compared to just 29% of those aged 65+. A whopping 11% of 16- to 24-year-olds reported binge-watching TV every day.
| How often | All adults 16+ | Aged 16–24 | Aged 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every day | 4% | 11% | 0% |
| At least weekly | 35% | 62% | 16% |
| At least monthly | 55% | 82% | 29% |
| Never | 19% | 3% | 43% |
Streaming services have changed the way we watch TV. Whether you stream through Netflix, Amazon Prime or NOW TV, more than 50% of all households now have at least 1 of the 3 streaming subscriptions. That is 14.3 million UK households, an increase of 16% since 2018. 6% have subscribed to all 3 services and 32% have monthly subscriptions to both Netflix and Amazon Prime.
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Netflix is by far the most popular streaming service in the UK, with more than 12.4 million subscribers at the end of 2019, an 8% increase since 2018. Meanwhile Amazon Prime and NOW TV have experienced healthy growth over the year too.
| Streaming service | Q1 2018 | Q1 2019 | Q4 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | 9.11 million | 11.47 million | 12.4 million |
| Amazon | 4.83 million | 5.96 million | 7.1 million |
| NOW TV | 1.46 million | 1.62 million | 2 million |
With so many different streaming services out there, it’s easy to end up with multiple subscriptions. So just how much are Brits spending on streaming services?
You can see more statistics on our TV streaming habits on this page.
Which shows are capturing the imaginations of Brits? We dived into the latest statistics to see which programmes we are watching and which ones we aren’t.
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