Advanced Television

iPlayer 3rd-ranked UK brand; Netflix 6th

January 19, 2017

By Colin Mann

The BBC iPlayer has been ranked third on YouGov BrandIndex’s list of the UK’s top brands, with SVoD service Netflix a new entry into the top ten in sixth position. YouTube also made the top ten in ninth. For the third year in a row, discount supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl fill the two top spots.

YouGov BrandIndex measures the public’s perception of brands on a daily basis across a range of measures. The annual rankings were compiled using Buzz scores from across all 52 weeks of 2016. Buzz scores measure whether people have heard good or bad news about a brand during the previous two weeks.

Aldi takes the top spot with an average Buzz score of +16.8 while Lidl follows closely behind on +13.4. The rest of the top five is filled by BBC iPlayer (+11.8), John Lewis (+11.1) and, new entry, MoneySavingExpert.com (+11.1).

According to YouGov, Netflix, in sixth position with a score of +11.0 has cemented itself as a heavyweight broadcast brand with the likes of The Crown, its drama looking at the early reign of the Queen.

“Its position as a major player in television and film was confirmed last week when BBC Director General, Lord Hall, announced the corporation’ would soon allow viewers to download episodes en masse to encourage binge watching, in direct response to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video,” notes YouGov.

“Streaming really has become a normal part of everyday life in the past 12 months,” noted YouGov’s Michael Stacey. “Although BBC iPlayer has been a fixture in the top ten for many years, it has now been joined by Netflix and YouTube.”

“We have seen similar trends in recent years as brands truly become established – a few years ago the same thing happened with device manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung making waves off the back of big sales of their smartphones and tablets. However, as these brands showed, it is harder to maintain buzz when you move to the mainstream.’’

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Markets, Research