UK video spending reaches £82.38 monthly as app use expands

By Daniel Okafor

UK respondents spent an average of £82.38 (€98.46) on video each month in 2026, according to TiVo, equivalent to £988.56 over 12 months at a steady rate.

TiVo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi, published its 2026 UK Video Trends Report on October 29, 2026. Spending rose 11% from £73.99 in 2025, an increase of £8.39 per month.

Viewing time also edged upward, to 4.62 hours of video per day from 4.5 hours in 2025. The 0.12-hour difference equals 7.2 minutes daily, or roughly 44 additional hours per viewer across a full year.

What does app fragmentation mean for viewers?

England’s respondents now use 8.64 video sources on average. The figure rose from 7.67 in 2025 and 6.48 in 2024. Northern Ireland recorded the UK’s highest average, at 9.64 sources, 1.00 more than England.

More sources have not removed decision friction: 77.2% of respondents used multiple apps during a typical viewing session, up from 64.2% in 2025. Another 48.5% said they felt annoyed by having to browse several apps. Respondents abandoned their current programme or film for another title 22.3% of the time.

TiVo’s Stéphane David, Head of Content Partnerships & Business Development, EMEA, said: “People are investing more of their precious time and money in content.” He described the resulting search burden as “an incredibly complex menu of apps, platforms and services just to find something to watch.”

David called for the industry to simplify the experience, bring content together and make discovery more intuitive, reducing time spent searching. His argument supplies the report’s commercial pitch. The available evidence in this release consists of respondent findings, not operator revenue, churn data or a trial showing that aggregation reduces switching.

The release gives no sample size, fieldwork dates or weighting details, so the figures cannot be treated as audited market totals.

Is video still winning household budgets?

Despite continued pressure on household budgets, 67% of respondents rate video services a moderate-to-high priority. Average monthly spending on SVoD subscriptions climbed 24% to £34.83, while average monthly sports-streaming spend rose 20% to £33.01. Those two averages total £67.84, equal to £814.08 over 12 months at constant rates.

These figures demonstrate higher consumer allocation, not operator performance. The release does not reveal whether price changes, subscriber additions or cancellations drove the increases, because it provides no operator-level subscription data.

Where is viewing moving?

• In the car: 39.7% of respondents use video services while in the car, up from 34.2% in 2025 and 28.9% in 2023, a 10.8 percentage-point gain over two years.
• Rewatching: More than four in every 10 viewing hours go to familiar programmes and films as libraries expand, although the release provides no exact rewatching percentage.
• Broadcast television: More than 57% of broadcaster viewing time now comes through an app, up from 52% in 2025. Over-the-air viewing accounts for 43%.
• Advertising: 57.2% of SVoD viewers use an ad-supported subscription tier. Across all respondents, 57.6% use AVoD/FAST, up from 52.5% in 2025, and those users regularly watch an average of 7.1 channels.
• Smart television: 79.9% of respondents own a Smart TV, while 17.2% expect to purchase a new one before the end of 2026.

What does this mean for operators?

With 77.2% using multiple apps in one session and switching titles 22.3% of the time, cross-service discovery becomes a practical priority for operators, broadcasters and streaming platforms.

More than 57% of broadcaster-TV viewing now occurs through an app, while over-the-air viewing holds 43%, making application distribution central to audience reach.

With 57.6% of respondents using AVoD/FAST and 57.2% of SVoD viewers taking ad-supported tiers, advertising-supported models already command substantial audience reach.

These percentages indicate commercial implications, not measured operator gains. The report gives no operator revenue, subscriber churn, advertising yield or return-on-investment figures. It also identifies no regulatory mandate or standards change behind the shift.

That makes TiVo’s simplification argument commercially understandable, but this respondent survey does not prove it.

What happens next?

The clearest near-term checkpoint is the end of 2026, when 17.2% of respondents expect to buy a Smart TV, while 39.7% already use video services in cars and more than 57% of broadcaster viewing happens through apps.

The next test is whether aggregation reduces the 22.3% programme-switching rate and converts rising spending into durable subscriptions. TiVo provides no product rollout, investment or policy timetable, leaving commercial conversion, rather than announced deployments, as the practical measure.