UK flag US flag FR flag
| |

No streaming services in Barb's 10 most-watched UK shows of 2022

No streaming services in UK’s 10 most-watched shows of 2022

The BBC and ITV dominated the top 10 most-watched titles across all UK channels and services last year, figures from audience measurement company Barb Audiences have revealed.

According to Barb’s four-screen viewing data for 2022, the Queen’s Funeral Service was the most-watched title last year with 26.54 million viewers across four screens and more than 50 channels.

This was followed by ITV1’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2022: England v France match with 16.08 million viewers across TV set, PC, tablet and smartphones.

The BBC took the lion’s share of the rest of the top 10 most-watched titles last year with seven other titles including King Charles’ first Christmas day address and New Year programming, while ITV had one more title in the list with the opening episode of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!.

The most-watched SVOD title of last year was Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery attracting 6.7 million viewers within seven days of it debuting on the service on 23 December 2022.

This fell outside the top 30 most-watched titles across all services and channels based on seven-day viewing for broadcast and SVOD titles most-watched programme per series.

UK streaming households decline slightly

According to Barb’s Establishment Survey data for Q4 2022, the number of households with a SVOD service in the UK decreased from 19.54 million in Q3 2022 to 19.42 million in Q4 2022 (-0.6%).

The number of households with a Netflix or Now subscription declined by 0.7% and 7.6% respectively quarter-on-quarter.

A total of 17.15 million homes had access to Netflix in Q4 2022, while 1.88 million homes had a subscription to Now.

UK households with a subscription to Amazon Prime Video remained steady, with 13.11 million in Q3 2022 and 13.12 million in Q4 2022.

Apple TV+ and Disney+ both gained subscribing households quarter-on-quarter.

There were 1.69 million households subscribing to Apple TV+ in Q4 2022, a jump of 21% on the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, Disney+ UK subscriber households went from 6.98 million in Q3 2022 to 7.28 million homes in Q4 2022, an increase of 4.3%.

Jessica Bromley, Communications Manager, Barb, on 20 Feb 2023
“In our charts of the most-watched programmes, we report SVOD viewing in the same way as we do for broadcast programmes, so they are directly comparable. Viewing figures for broadcast programmes are consolidated 7-day figures; viewing figures for SVOD services are based on the average audience achieved in the first seven days of their availability. Barb clients can look at viewing over the time period of their choice, such as 28-day viewing.”
Nick Drew, CEO, Fuse Insights, on 20 Feb 2023
“As noted above, more than anything this somewhat misleading ranking calls into question BARB's 7 day figure, which is less relevant now than it has ever been for TV, and absolutely pointless when seaking to compare broadcast or linear TV with any video on-demand platforms.”
tristan bentall, Industry Head, Entertainment, Google, on 20 Feb 2023
“Hello. If you add the week of launch plus the following week (Chrimbo to New Year) Glass Onion delivered 11.95m viewers, putting it comfortably in 6th place. The way the BARB data only looks at a weeks viewing insolation not total viewing means event/live style programming always rises to top, but this is a little misleading.”

Media Jobs