During the coronavirus pandemic shutdown in the United Kingdom — the world’s No. 2 home entertainment market — the average consumer binge-viewed three episodic series. U.K. consumers also opted for ad-supported VOD over subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and BritBox, according to new data from U.K. online entertainment retailer MusicMagpie.
Citing an internal survey, the retailer found that among 16- to 24-year olds, respondents watched four episodes at a time on average, and considered five episodes binging. That quantity dropped off considerably among the 55-and-older demo, which viewed just one episode and consider three back-to-back episodes as binging.
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Younger respondents (25 to 34 year olds) on average stream less than two hours watching daily, while 55-and-older stream about 30 minutes. The average respondent has watched three series since lockdown began; more than half of the U.K. (51%) have increased the amount of TV/films they stream; 52% revisited a favorite series.
The most popular series was “Sherlock” with 55% of respondents having seen it.
| Rank | Series | % respondents streamed it |
| 1 | Sherlock | 55% |
| 2 | Peaky Blinders | 53% |
| 3 | Game of Thrones | 51% |
| 4 | Line of Duty | 51% |
| 5 | Killing Eve | 48% |
| 6 | Breaking Bad | 48% |
| 7 | The Walking Dead | 47% |
| 8 | Stranger Things | 44% |
| 9 | Chernobyl | 42% |
| 10 | Homeland | 40% |
| 11 | The Crown | 39% |
| 12 | Suits | 37% |
| 13 | Black Mirror | 36% |
| 14 | Westworld | 35% |
| 15 | Fleabag | 35% |
| 16 | The Wire | 33% |
| 17 | Ozark | 28% |
| 18 | Top Boy | 26% |
| 19 | Power | 26% |
| 20 | Mind Hunter | 25% |
A separate report from SpotX, citing Statista research, found 64% of British viewers are more likely to choose an ad-supported streaming service over a paid subscription. This data underscores why ViacomCBS and Fox Corp. collectively spent nearly $800 million acquiring AVOD platforms Pluto TV and Tubi, respectively, for global expansion.
Indeed, 69% of connected TV viewers say they watch ad-supported content and more than half (58%) say that they prefer to watch free ad-supported programming versus paying for an ad-free content.
“With 50% reach in CTV viewership representing 61.5 million households across Europe’s biggest markets, advertisers are increasingly recognizing [AVOD] power to efficiently and accurately reach target audiences at scale,” Léon Siotis, president of EMEA at SpotX, said in a statement.