It is a situation most television viewers know all too well: thousands of shows to choose from across dozens of streamers, live channels and catch-up services – and no idea where to start.
The Netflix-led streaming revolution has fuelled a £6bn-plus annual content arms race in the UK, creating a so-called golden age for viewers as broadcasters, streamers and tech companies battle for audiences.
But this content overload poses an existential threat to the industry, TV bosses have warned, because overwhelmed consumers are increasingly defaulting to browsing endless short videos recommended by algorithms on websites such as YouTube and TikTok.
The phenomenon of shifting focus to snack-length clips is more common among younger viewers, storing up a “generational timebomb” for the sector, attenders at the Royal Television Society convention were told.
“In Britain, consumers feel anxious about video overload,” said Alex Mahon, chief executive of Channel 4, in a speech at the event in Cambridge on Wednesday. “We are in a global-versus-local fight, as YouTube and [US streaming services] are able to deploy so much content.
Mahon said that while older viewers turn to short-form video for a quarter of viewing, among younger viewers such services account for 45% of all consumption.
“We must urgently recognise that those of us who are UK public service broadcasters (PSB) are sitting on a generational timebomb,” she said. “Young people have a weaker affinity for – and recognition of – the PSB brands. We can’t expect them to happen upon [our content] when there is simply too much to watch. We are fighting for our business lives.”
Pedro Pina, YouTube’s European vice-president, defended the tsunami of content consumers face, with about 500 hours of new video content uploaded to the site every minute.
“There is a lot of content but from my point of view what really matters is there is a lot more diverse content than ever existed before,” he said. “That is the beauty of platforms like YouTube. We have created a massive revolution in creativity in this country.”
However, Simon Pitts, the chief executive of Scottish broadcasting group STV, warned of the dangers of partnering with the major streamers and tech companies.
“The global gatekeepers, global platforms don’t have our interests at heart when it comes to distributing TV. We were big friends with Amazon … we helped build each other’s businesses. But earlier this year they said there had been a change of policy at a global level and they would now like 30% of our ad inventory on their platform. They are your friends and then not your friends when there is a change of policy.”
In the past year, Netflix and peers across the industry including Disney and Warner Bros Discovery have moved to significantly cut back on profligate spending as investors demanded a “reset” in the models that underpin their heavily loss-making streaming services in a drive for profitability.
Such spending cuts, a backlog of content and stoppage to US-linked projects as a result of the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes have led to a marked slowdown in the UK production sector, with its union, Bectu, warning that three-quarters of freelance film and TV crew in Britain are now out of work.
The slowdown in the content arms race, and a pause in the rampant growth of tech companies such as YouTube, is providing traditional broadcasters with an opportunity to pursue a multiplatform strategy of building their own services fit for the consumption habits of the next generation of viewers.
“There is nobody in this room who doesn’t know the younger generation is mostly on YouTube. It is [about] moving to a streaming model, moving to IP [internet-based] delivery,” said Maria Kyriacou, president of broadcast and studios, international markets at Paramount, which owns MTV and Channel 5. “Ultimately it is where audiences are going.”
Mike Fries, the chief executive of Liberty Global, which jointly owns Virgin Media O2 and holds a 10% stake in ITV, said the fundamental issue was not the volume of output but helping consumers discover the best content.
“I’m not sure there is too much to watch,” he said. “This is the golden age of TV. The problem is it is too hard to find, and it is getting too expensive. Too much to watch is a bit of a kneejerk reaction to incredible content that is too hard to find.”
