Eighty per cent of UK television owners use their sets to stream films and TV shows, ahead of the 64 per cent who still watch live broadcast TV, according to survey data published by Expert Reviews as part of its 2026 TV Awards on 28 September.

The gap marks a clear shift in how UK households use the main screen in the living room. Streaming — a viewing format that barely existed two decades ago — now leads live broadcasting by 16 percentage points among the surveyed TV owners. Live sports trails further behind at 55 per cent, even though sport remains one of the last anchors of scheduled television.

The full ranking of what UK respondents use their TVs for reads as follows:

• Streaming films and TV shows: 80 per cent
• Watching live broadcast TV: 64 per cent
• Watching live sports: 55 per cent
• Watching YouTube: 50 per cent
• Gaming: 31 per cent
• Listening to music: 29 per cent
• Browsing the web: 12 per cent

Beyond streaming and broadcast, the sharpest takeaway is how little the connected-TV era has changed secondary behaviour. Only 31 per cent of respondents game on their television, 29 per cent listen to music on it, and a mere 12 per cent browse the web — despite most modern sets shipping with browsers, app stores and cloud-gaming clients built in. YouTube sits in the middle at 50 per cent, effectively matching live sports as a draw.

Broadcast is wounded, not dead

The numbers point to streaming dominance, but they do not point to a broadcast collapse. Ofcom's latest Media Nations Report found that UK audiences are just as likely to turn to Netflix as they are to the BBC when deciding what to watch — a parity that suggests public service broadcasters and the major commercial channels retain real pull even as on-demand platforms surge.

Hybrid services underline the point. Andy White, Deputy Editor of Expert Reviews, noted that appetite for live television remains visible in the success of Freely, the UK broadcasters' streaming platform that combines live and on-demand content in a single interface.

"Despite an increasing number of viewers turning to streaming platforms for content, there's still plenty of appetite for live television," White said. "This is evident in the success of services like Freely, which offer a combination of live and on-demand content. That's good news for UK broadcasters and suggests an all-streaming future may not come as soon as some have predicted."

A total replacement of live broadcast by streaming appears unlikely in the near term. What the data does confirm is that streaming has moved from challenger to equal-or-better in UK living rooms, and that it will continue to shape viewing habits and the UK media market for years to come.

Two working days a week in front of the set

Most UK respondents reported spending 15 to 20 hours per week watching television — roughly the equivalent of two full working days in front of the screen. The viewing time is not evenly distributed. Thirty-five per cent of respondents in Northern UK regions said they watch more than 21 hours of TV each week, against 30 per cent in Southern regions, a modest but consistent north-south divide in television consumption.

White admitted the stickiness of the big screen surprised him. "I was slightly surprised to see that a fifth of UK respondents still watch more than two hours of TV a day," he said. "With mobile devices always on hand to deliver much of the same content that's available on TV, I expected this figure to be lower. But it shows that consumers still value a larger-screen viewing experience, and I imagine that many, including myself, still see TV watching as a communal event."

Hardware vendors read the data as an upgrade cycle

TV manufacturers are treating the streaming shift as a hardware opportunity. Tom Lord, Product and Consumer Manager for TV at Hisense UK, framed the 80 per cent streaming figure as a driver for premium display technology — a claim that serves Hisense's commercial interest as much as it describes consumer behaviour.

"With 80 per cent of the nation using their TV to stream films, having the right technology in the living room has never been more important to make the most out of that content and create a truly cinematic experience," Lord said. "At Hisense, we're seeing a growing number of consumers looking to upgrade to larger screens and flagship technologies such as RGB MiniLED, which delivers unmatched colour accuracy and an enhanced viewing experience through advanced processing features such as Dolby Vision 2. With 180Hz panels and built-in features such as Xbox Cloud Gaming, consumers can also play their favourite games directly from their Hisense TV, without the need for a console, which is great news for the 31% of the nation who use their TVs for gaming."

The commercial signal in his remarks is clear enough: vendors are bundling cloud gaming and high-refresh panels into mid-range and flagship sets to capture both the streaming majority and the 31 per cent gaming minority, while the broadcast audience is treated as one input among several rather than the default use case.

For the UK television market, the direction of travel is established. Streaming leads, broadcast persists on the strength of live events and hybrid platforms like Freely, and the battle for the next phase of viewing — larger panels, cloud gaming and on-demand-first interfaces — will be fought in hardware retail rather than in the programme schedule.