The broadcaster has been warned it’s “over” for traditional TV.
Even EastEnders saw a drop in viewership (Image: BBC)
The Christmas TV figures were released on Friday (December 26), and it showed a serious drop across the board in comparison to the year prior. In 2024, Christmas Day TV peaked with a Gavin and Stacey special bringing in 12.3million views; whereas this year the highest performer was The King’s Speech, with just 6million views. TV has faced a staggering blow this year as more shows appeared to have dropped off, including EastEnders, which has typically performed quite well for the BBC on Christmas Day.
In a brutal warning to the BBC and other broadcasters, journalist Andrew Neil, who has previously worked on both the BBC and Channel 4, wrote on X: “Christmas TV ratings illustrate the precipate decline of linear broadcast TV, which hits the BBC most of all.”
The King’s Speech had the highest amount of views (Image: BBC)
He added: “The highest-rated shows this Christmas were lucky to get 4m. Morecambe and Wise used to get 20m+. It’s over for traditional broadcast TV. Decline is ongoing and inevitable.
“Yet still the BBC and the government think the licence fee should be renewed on broadly the current basis for another 10 years. Death knell. People, especially young people, will just refuse to pay for something they don’t watch, or rarely watch. Are you going to put them all in jail?”
People were quick to get involved in the comments, sharing their opinions about why they think things are going downhill for the BBC, with one user writing: “I hate to talk of the decline of the BBC. But the programming this Christmas was totally feeble. The answer is: they need to do better! They only need to look back to their own back catalogue to find out how.”
Another wrote: “The schedules have been woeful, worst I’ve ever seen. Is the BBC skint?” A third added: “You can’t fund a 21st century media landscape with a 20th century model. Viewing habits have changed permanently, especially among under 30s.”
However, others warned it could be far from over, given last year’s performance, with one user writing: “It has been a weak lineup this year but we’ve been spoilt for the previous couple of years (Gavin & Stacey picked up 19m viewers last Christmas) so it might not be over yet.”
Younger people are notably moving towards streaming rather than media in the traditional sense, with many younger people opting not to pay the BBC license fee due to not watching live TV.
