No, the younger generation have not abandoned terrestrial TV

Traditional terrestrial television is still very much at the forefront of broadcast, writes VCCP’s (still youthful) Alex Baker

English Cricket Board Chairman Colin Graves recently featured in a BBC article on the subject of the lack of viewership surrounding cricket. In the article he said that “the younger generation do not watch terrestrial television, they use social media”.

Such a comment, made by a senior member of a national sporting board, goes to show not only the confusion as to what the younger audience are actually watching, but the constantly repeated myths surrounding modern TV viewing, sport or otherwise.

One of the biggest sporting events of this year, the Euro 2016 competition, kicked off this month. Sporting fans all over Europe and indeed the world will be tuning in to watch some of the world’s best footballers, but the way in which they watch the event has barely changed for as long as fans can remember. I am, of course, talking about live TV.

Perhaps one of the most prominent examples of how recent live terrestrial sport has changed through recent years is the comparisons between the 2004 Euro competition and the 2012 event.

12 years ago, 5.2 million under 35s tuned in to watch England get knocked out of the 2004 competition against Portugal. This figure is almost exactly the same as the 5 million under 35s who watched Italy knock England out of the competition on penalties in 2012; a total difference of just 200,000 between the two competitions in eight years.

While eight years may not seem like a long time, the time frame saw the rise of social media which was well underway in 2012 and these numbers suggest that social was hardly drawing people away from watching the event, as Colin Graves was suggesting. Again, all of these matches (both in the 2004 competition as well as in 2012), were shown on live terrestrial television.

There is no doubt, however, that young viewership of terrestrial TV is decreasing.

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Between 2010 and 2015, the three commercial terrestrial channels – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – saw on average a 25% loss of young (under 35) viewership, compared with an 18% loss of overall adult viewership across the channels.

However, these figures are a far cry from the younger generation having all but abandoned terrestrial TV, and the content of channels themselves reinforces this point.

Despite a decreasing young viewership, there is an ongoing trend for terrestrial channels to push out a variety of content for younger viewers, such as recent commissions and recurring series from Channel 4 include Fresh Meat and the This is England Series, both of which are aimed at younger viewers and have enjoyed multiple, successful series.

We see the same across the BBC, ITV and Channel 5 – the latter has enjoyed young audience success with Gotham and the BBC has recently started showing the third series of the extremely popular Peaky Blinders.

Perhaps one reason for creating content aimed at a younger audience is that these terrestrial channels know younger viewers interact socially with what they watch. In fact, far from Mr Graves’ comment being true, television and social media go hand in hand, whether viewers are watching a cup final or a new drama programme.

One of the most tweeted about events of this year was Adele winning the Brit Awards, which peaked at 55,000 tweets per minute and drew in a live terrestrial TV audience of 1.75 million under 35s. The trend continues down the line with an extremely strong correlation between Tweet spikes and television programmes – and it is TV that creates these talking points.

Sport is one of the biggest areas in which channels are battling for younger viewers; we have recently witnessed the raging battles to secure coverage of sporting events such as Formula One and The Grand National, both of which Channel 4 have recently taken from the BBC – and in the case of Channel 4’s acquisition of Formula One, at a cost of £35 million per year.

10 live Formula One races will be aired on the terrestrial channel for the next three years – currently all live races are shown on Sky’s dedicated F1 channel, half of which are exclusive.

However, despite some exclusivity around certain events, the first live race of this year shows the challenges faced by Sky F1; during the Bahrain race, Channel 4 had more than double the number of under 35s watching than Sky did.

Terrestrial TV is paramount for these big sporting events; earlier this year, UEFA considered its Champions League deal with BT Sport ‘a mistake’, a move that again shows the importance of terrestrial TV for large events.

Recently, a report from UEFA stated: “While UEFA believes BT Sport are delivering an excellent product on screen, the lack of coverage on terrestrial TV is hurting the competition in the UK.”

While paid TV sport definitely has a place, it remains true that only terrestrial TV can deliver the coverage that big events demand.

As Will Hinch of Pitchero.com said earlier this year: “You only need to glance at the relative viewing figures for sporting fixtures on terrestrial channels vs. pay-channels to realise the importance of accessing a wider audience.

“Last year’s Six Nations match between England and France peaked at 9.63 million viewers on the BBC, a figure that can’t be replicated on pay-tv channels no matter your sport.”

It remains to be seen how the future of terrestrial TV will treat a younger audience, but if the situation continues the way it is, youngsters will certainly not be lacking choice when they come to switch on the box.

Although data points to a slight shift in a younger audience moving away, any comments aimed at disregarding young viewership of terrestrial television are shaky at best.

And, while it is true that there is more competition than ever looking to capture the attention of a younger audience, traditional terrestrial television is still very much at the forefront of broadcast, and doesn’t look to be slacking off any time soon.

Alex Baker is a TV executive for the VCCP Media TV team.