More than half of UK YouTube viewers watch on TV, according to British ratings agency Barb’s latest viewing habits report.
According to a report released today, nearly half of YouTube views occur on smartphones, tablets, and laptops, while 54% across all demographics are watched on TV. Barb now calls the video platform “an important part of the UK’s AV ecosystem”.
YouTube is also the fourth most-watched navigation platform, making it as much a “gateway to content” as traditional cable and satellite platform EPGs, according to Barb. The average reach of YouTube content from ITV TV was 4.9 million in 2025, according to the report. For Sky, the figure was 3.4 million and for Channel 4 it was 2.5 million.
Not only is this a place for content creators to start their careers before moving on to “traditional” broadcasters and streamers like Mr Beast and Mark Rober, but it means TV companies are increasingly looking to tech companies for discovery.
BBC Studios is one of a number of traditional television companies to partner with YouTube. Last year, the production company’s Digital SVP Jasmine Dawson took part in a joint Mipcon panel discussion with YouTube’s head of EMEA, Pedro Pina, during which she extolled the benefits of working with the tech company. “We haven’t sacrificed anything,” she said. “In fact, it’s incremental. And the conversations we have with our distribution partners, whether it’s ‘Bluey’ with Disney or some of our BBC Earth titles with PBS and other distributors, are very strong. They understand that this is where fandom grows and that’s what drives incrementality.”
But when it comes to switch-on, or where viewers go first when they turn on the TV, YouTube beats Netflix. According to this metric, one-third of viewers tune in to traditional broadcast stations, one-third tune in to streamers and YouTube combined, and one-third tune in elsewhere.
Among the third users accessing streamers/YouTube, Netflix leads the way, with 14% of viewers accessing the “Love Is Blind” streamer first, compared to 10% for YouTube.
For 16-34 year olds, Netflix is the most popular platform, with 26% of them using it as soon as they first turn on their TV. For children aged 4 to 15, 26% first visit YouTube for a viewing session on the TV set, which is the most commonly used platform for viewing.
Other key trends show that live TV continues to decline from 60% of all TV viewing in 2022 to 45% in December 2025. Unsurprisingly, sport remains a big driver for live TV, with the Women’s Euro final, in which England beat Spain, drawing an average of 9.8 million viewers across BBC and ITV, with 94% of those watching live.
Family viewing also continues to attract large numbers of live viewers who book to watch shows such as the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final, “Celebrity Traitors” and even “Gogglebox.”
On-demand streaming still accounts for the majority of viewership, reaching 38% of UK viewing by 2025. Curiously, the majority of viewing on the UK’s three biggest streaming companies – Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix – was from library content that had been available for more than 12 months. According to Barb, “Bluey” accounted for 4.2% of all TV viewing on Disney+.
“Too often, commentary about television is based on binary assumptions that ignore more complex realities,” said Justin Sampson, CEO of Barb. “Barb’s independent evidence points to a world where viewing is defined more by adaptation than disruption.”
“The prognosis is more connected, nuanced and resilient than clichés and partial perspectives suggest. Live audiences are healthy, children and young people are not leaving linear services, and there is an increasingly symbiotic relationship between all services and platforms within the television ecosystem.”
