TV set is most popular way to watch YouTube in UK, study finds

The television has replaced laptops, tablets and smartphones as the most common device for UK viewers to watch YouTube at home, according to data confirming the platform’s place as a living room mainstay.More than half of all YouTube viewing through a domestic wifi connection is now done through the traditional TV, making it the top-ranking YouTube device across all age groups.The findings, from a Barb Audiences review, found that YouTube viewing is still skewed towards children, with whom the platform has been popular for some time. It has led to some concerns about the platform’s dominance in children’s TV, as well as the kinds of shows its algorithm serves up.However, TV sets became the first-choice device for YouTube viewing for over-55s in October 2023, for those between 35 and 54 in April 2024 – and finally for 16- to 34-year-olds in December 2024.Despite YouTube’s rise, the Barb data suggests traditional television viewing is far from dead. It found live TV still made up 45% of all identified viewing on TV sets in December 2025.Last year’s live TV viewing was driven by sporting events such as the Women’s Euro 2025 final and entertainment including BBC-one" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="10019" data-entity-type="organization">BBC One’s Celebrity Traitors and Channel 4’s Gogglebox.“Commentary about television is too often based on a binary premise: nobody watches live any more, young audiences have vanished and platforms have replaced programmes,” said Justin Sampson, Barb’s chief executive.“What emerges from the evidence is not a paradigm shift, but a rebalancing. Live viewing remains a substantial part of the mix, even among younger audiences.“YouTube, too, resists easy categorisation. It is neither simply ‘TV’ nor something entirely separate from it … What is true is that the TV set is now the primary way YouTube is watched in homes around the country.”YouTube has become increasingly dominant, hosting podcasts and short-form videos, as well as content from traditional broadcasters. It marks an astonishing rise for a platform founded only 21 years ago.Its impact has been so marked in recent years that the media regulator, Ofcom, has urged “endangered” public service broadcasters like the BBC and ITV to place more of their content on the platform.The BBC has since announced plans to produce tailor-made content for YouTube. The corporation has previously posted clips and trailers for BBC shows on YouTube, but under the deal it will make fresh programming for its online rival.YouTube’s cultural importance is also being acknowledged: the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has turned an early version of YouTube’s “watch page” into part of an exhibition. The page will feature the first video uploaded to the site, Me at the zoo, filmed by one of its founders, Jawed Karim. The museum said it was “a vital piece of internet history”.Visitors will be able to see the page playing as internet users would have done 20 years ago. It features Karim at San Diego zoo, talking about elephants. The 19-second clip has been viewed more than 380m times since it was posted in April 2005.Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief executive, said Karim’s video “became a new way for people to share their stories with the world”.