British Comedy Guide

Ofcom report reveals drop in spending on British TV comedy

Monday 11th July 2016, 2:29pm

Upstart Crow. Image shows from L to R: Condell (Dominic Coleman), Kempe (Spencer Jones), Burbage (Steve Speirs), Kate (Gemma Whelan), Will Shakespeare (David Mitchell). Copyright: BBC
  • Ofcom's annual report reveals the main TV channels have cut their spending on comedy by 4%
  • £99m was spent on original UK comedy programmes in 2015, the lowest amount for at least a decade
  • The drop is despite 72% of viewers saying comedy should be a key part of public service broadcasting

A report from media regulator Ofcom has revealed that the main TV channels are now spending less on the comedy genre.

Ofcom's Public Service Broadcasting annual report - which focuses primarily on the output of the BBC channels, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, the channels with public service remits - notes that original UK comedy spending by these stations fell by 4% last year, to £99m. This is the lowest figure recorded in the decade the report has been running.

Original UK comedy output has decreased on PSB channels to 193 hours, down by 9% on 2014 and down 18% on the output levels in 2006. Meanwhile, spending on the drama genre increased in 2015, up 12% to £311m.

Ofcom's data reveals that comedy programming accounted for 5.3% of viewing, compared with 14% of output.

Spending on original UK comedy has dropped despite the Ofcom's PSB Audience Opinions research indicating that 72% of viewers think "[showing] high quality comedy made in the UK" is an important purpose of a PSB TV channel - compared to 69% for Drama & Soaps.

Just 59% of respondents to the Ofcom survey said they thought the main channels were meeting their expectations in terms of Comedy output, although this has risen up from the 50% satisfaction level recorded in 2014.

The graph below shows that the BBC remains the main broadcaster of British TV comedy, whilst ITV and Channel 4 both delivered 20 hours each last year.

Ofcom Report

This latest Ofcom report also reveals a marked shift in how young viewers are now consuming television, with a third of all viewing now on-demand.

The full Ofcom report can be downloaded from Ofcom.org.uk

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