UK Hits Generational Landmark As Online News Consumption Overtakes TV For First Time — Ofcom Research

The UK has reached a generational tipping point in news consumption, with online overtaking traditional TV for the first time, according to research from Ofcom.

While there is little distance between the two, those who said that they consume online news in some capacity hit 71% this year, ahead of those who said they consume news via TV by one percentage point.

According to the regulator’s latest News consumption in the UK tracker, the rising use of social media for news, not only from young people, is the driving force.

More than half of UK adults (52%) now use platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to access news, up from 47% in 2023. TV news reach has declined by exactly the same amount over the period, falling from 75% to 70%.

Going online was established as by far the most popular way for younger people to access news (88% of 16–24-year-olds), but older generations are also gradually adding online sources to their news diets, according to the research. More than half (54%) of people aged 55+ said they find news online – up from 45% in 2018 – with most navigating directly to news websites.

Among 16-24 year olds, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X and TikTok occupied the top five slots in terms of news consumption.

BBC One remains the most common source of news, according to the research, with 43% saying they tune in to the nation’s flagship channel, but Facebook drew level with ITV in second at 30%, placing it well ahead of BBC iPlayer (23%). IPlayer is followed by YouTube (19%), Sky News (19%) and the BBC News channel (18%). In a major blow, Channel 4 News dropped out of the top 10 entirely.

Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom Group Director, Strategy and Research, said: “Television has dominated people’s news habits since the sixties, and it still commands really high trust. But we’re witnessing a generational shift to online news, which is often seen as less reliable – together with growing fears about misinformation and deepfake content.”

In Ofcom research about the recent general election published alongside the news tracker, more than a quarter (27%) claimed they had seen a deepfake in the past week and nearly half (46%) were uncertain over whether they had. A majority (60%) claimed they had encountered information regarding the general election that they felt might have been false or misleading at least once in the prior week.

Notably, the research found that the biggest increase in interest during the pre-July 4 general election period was from young people aged 18-24. On the other side of the coin, adults aged over 50 were more likely than usual to be disengaged during the same period.