Advanced Television

Research: Newcastle is UK’s biggest pay-TV spender

April 11, 2019

Research conducted by internet TV service netgem.TV reveals how different regions in the UK prioritise their entertainment subscriptions.

In the list of top TV spenders, Newcastle is followed by Manchester, where the average household spends £53 (€61.5) per month and Birmingham, who spend an average of £52 per month.

The average household spend on a BT, Virgin or Sky package is now £51 across Britain. But that layout of around £612 per year, is dwarfed by the £828 spent by people in Newcastle.

The research called into question the value of traditional TV packages, with 1 in 5 Brits admitting they’re forced to stream extra content from the internet every day.

Over half (56 per cent) of users still stream additional content that is not available via their household’s subscription TV package at least once per week.

With streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video now becoming one of the leading avenues to viewing TV and film content on-demand, a third of TV package payers say their subscription package is poor value for money.

In fact, services such as Netflix and Amazon are now as popular as traditional paid-for packages from Sky, Virgin Media and BT TV – with a third (29 per cent) of all the TV we watch now being streamed.

Out of the 2,000 UK adults surveyed by online TV service netgem.tv, 59 per cent pay for one or more of the big three providers, Sky, Virgin Media or BT TV, whereas 58 per cent have a Netflix or Amazon Prime TV account.

Sylvain Thevenot, Managing Director of netgem.tv, said: “With such a rich and diverse TV culture which inspired names like Byker Grove, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and of course Ant and Dec, it’s no surprise to see Geordies listed among the top paying TV lovers in Britain. No doubt the Newcastle passion for sport also contributes towards the monthly household TV spend. But with thousands of hours worth of content now available on demand via streaming services, the value of traditional Sky, Virgin and BT bundles is being called into question.

“Our research shows that most people only watch a fraction of channels available to them, and more than half of people are so badly served by their TV deals that have to stream extra content every week,” he added.

The average monthly spend on a Sky, BT or Virgin package, ranked by region:
Newcastle – £63
Birmingham – £53
Manchester – £52
Bristol – £51.80
Cardiff – 50.30
London – £49.80
Brighton – £48.30
Belfast – £48.30
Nottingham – £47.40
Edinburgh – £45.03

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Markets, Pay TV, Research