Thinkbox
BVOD or broadcaster video on demand refers to all on demand services offered by one of the UK’s main broadcasters and includes ITVX, Channel 4 Streaming, Sky Go, U, My5, BBC iPlayer, among others.
BVOD provides a fantastic opportunity for audiences to watch their favourite shows at a time, on a device and in a place which best suits them - be that on the train, in bed, in the office or on the loo… or increasingly, sitting on the sofa, watching on a television with their family (some would call this the ‘traditional’ way to watch TV). In fact, the majority of BVOD, is watched on the TV set although some viewing takes place on all devices.
In recent years, viewing to BVOD has been on the increase and represents a significant proportion of broadcaster total viewing. For 25 to 34 year olds, BVOD is approximately a third of their total viewing.
Here are a few more facts and figures to give you the full picture:
- 89% of homes have a TV connected to the internet, so access to BVOD is pretty universal.
- In 2024, BVOD viewing grew by 23% year on year which is a substantial increase
- 88.5% of all BVOD viewing takes place on the TV set
- BVOD viewing accounts for 13% of all viewing for adults, but 29% of all 16 to 34 year olds viewing
Being able to watch your favourite show when you want is a huge draw for BVOD - a point detailed in Thinkbox’ s ‘The Age of TV’ research, which observed there are eight need states which define our video viewing habits. The escape need state is when audiences are most engaged and looking to lose themselves in content and BVOD plays a significant role in servicing this need.
This connection between convenience and content is perhaps no more obvious than in the relationship between BVOD and boxsets, specifically those available pre-broadcast. Content that’s released on a BVOD platform as a boxset before being shown on broadcaster TV, often attracts high levels of pre-broadcast viewing, particularly if the content appeals to younger viewers. In this example, an episode of The Couple Next Door on Channel 4 received 51% of the total audience to the pre-broadcast on-demand release.
In this example, an episode of Red Eye on ITV1 received 58% of the total audience to the pre-broadcast on-demand release.
There are, of course, some genres of programming to which BVOD does not lend itself to.
News is usually watched at the time of broadcast, as is live sport as these programmes are time sensitive. Looking at the chart below, we can see that for the friendly international match between England and Brazil on Channel 4, 97% of the viewing was live. This pattern holds true for most live sports.
