Ampere Analysis unpacks UK broadcaster YouTube distribution strategies
The UK’s leading free-to-air broadcasters — BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 — can potentially extend their reach by an average of 30% by using YouTube as a distribution platform. That is according to Q1 data from Ampere Analysis, drawing on its Media — Consumer tracking survey covering 2,000 UK homes.
In a recent webcast called “YouTube’s Evolving Role for UK Broadcasters”, senior analyst Josh Rustage (pictured above) said 53% of UK internet users aged 18-64 have watched BBC TV channels in the last month.
According to Rustage, 19 percentage points of incremental audience reach are achieved by adding BBC iPlayer distribution. A further 20% of incremental reach is possible when you add YouTube, from YouTube users who are not interacting with BBC channels or iPlayer.
The study found that 47% of YouTube users who are not currently engaging with the BBC in either form were aged 18-34.
As Rustage highlighted, YouTube reaches the exact demographic who has steadily moved away from broadcast TV or who never engaged with it in the first place.
Audience opportunity for broadcasters
“This paints a picture of an audience opportunity if broadcasters tap into the social video giant,” Rustage said.
He called YouTube a dominant force in the media market that steadily introduces features to grow audience time: “Our latest data shows that, in the UK, two-thirds of respondents reported using YouTube in the last month.”
Because of the potential to extend audience reach, and given the growth in online video and VOD advertising, Ampere views YouTube as a potential distribution partner for European broadcasters, including those in the UK.
Ampere recently introduced a social video tracker tool to understand how broadcasters use YouTube for distribution and has revealed some of what it has learned.
BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 all have a flagship channel and a news channel on YouTube. Most (except for 5) also have at least one sports-focused channel on the platform. News is considered an easy win for engagement and these channels have witnessed the highest number of video uploads from ITV, Channel 4 and 5 since 2023.
“There is sustained appetite for news on YouTube. It is topical and consistent, and there is a low cost for transitioning news content that has already been aired,” Rustage pointed out.
Between the UK’s free-to-air broadcasters, they had over 120 YouTube channels in Q1. The BBC operated 50, ITV had 42, Channel 4 had 26 and 5 had three. These figures include channels that are either broadcaster- or broadcaster studio-owned.
The vast majority fall into two buckets: single intellectual property-focused (ie. dedicated to a single show) and thematic (featuring different shows in one category).
In Q1, the BBC had two flagship channels, 17 thematics, 18 single IPs, two news and one sport (plus others, including radio/podcasts). ITV’s collection included one flagship, 18 thematics, 20 single IPs, one news and two sport.
Channel 4’s YouTube channels included one flagship, 17 thematics, five single IPs, one news and one sport.
“Thematic mixed channels represents the bulk of Channel 4’s strategy here, featuring Channel 4 Food and Channel 4 Houses, for example,” said Rustage.
Long-form thematic
It is the thematic channels where ITV has started shifting towards more long-form content, Rustage added. At all the broadcasters, but especially ITV, there is a skew towards unscripted content.
For Rustage, reality TV, soaps, game shows and chat shows are good candidates for distribution within YouTube channels because their value — in terms of gaining ad-supported viewers or helping drive subscriptions — decays more quickly than, say, drama.
A good deal of all the content published to YouTube by UK broadcasters is for global consumption. Ampere data shows that, between Q1 2023 and Q1 2025, 77% of the TV/film content was made available globally. For news, the figure was 60%, and for sport it was 39%.
Ampere also looked at the length of videos published to different broadcaster YouTube channels in Q1 versus the whole of 2024 and 2023. For film/TV-focused channels (thus excluding, for instance, news, sports and music channels), the percentage of uploads defined as long form (20-plus minutes) at the BBC was 24% in Q1, 12% in 2024 and 5% in 2023. The respective figures at ITV were 31%, 23% and 14%. The Channel 4 figures read 72%, 63% and 31%.
The data shows how broadcasters can use their YouTube channels as pairs where this makes contextual sense, as they sometimes do on linear. Thus Celebrity Big Brother 2025 appeared in the ITV flagship YouTube channel, with behind-the-scenes content in ITV Reality. “This is similar to how that content appears on ITV and ITV2,” Rustage explained.
Ampere believes YouTube can now be used as a new release and monetisation window, and cited the way Channel 4 now treats its soap Hollyoaks.
Each new episode is released at 7am to 4 streaming (broadcaster VOD) before it airs on linear at 7pm. One week later, the same episode is published on YouTube. “This is after they have already created value from the owned-and-operated services,” Rustage said.
“This is a good example of how a broadcaster captures extra value on content that decays quickly. Channel 4 is treating YouTube as a third window for a new piece of content.”
Capturing extra value
Ampere also analysed the windowing for long-form content that Channel 4 published to one of its YouTube channels, Channel 4 Documentaries, between Q1 2023 and Q1 2025.
It found that 41% of episodes were uploaded to the platform within seven days of their original owned-and-operated air date.
Meanwhile, 26% were uploaded between eight and 30 days after airing and 12% were uploaded 31-90 days after airing. During the 91- to 180-day post-air period, 5% were uploaded, while the figure for 181-plus days was 17%.
Rustage reckoned broadcasters will have to experiment to understand the best windowing for scripted content, which is expensive to produce and holds its value for longer.
“This is more difficult to window effectively and there is concern that once it lands on YouTube, it becomes more difficult to distribute elsewhere,” he concluded..