April 26, 2016

The research report, UK Audience Attitudes towards Broadcast Media, explores adults’ attitudes and opinions towards television and radio broadcasting, and related areas such as programme standards, advertising and regulation.

Findings include:

• UK adults’ opinion of the quality of television programmes has remained unchanged since 2014, with half of viewers (50%) feeling that the quality of programming has stayed the same;
• nearly a third of adults (30%) feel that programme quality had worsened, again unchanged since 2014. The main reasons cited were more repeats (65%), lack of variety (38%), overall lack of quality (32%) and too many reality shows (28%);
• levels of personal offence of TV programming have remained relatively low, at one fifth of adults. The top three types of content most likely to cause offence to viewers were sexual content (38%), violence (37%) and bad language (37%);
• the most common reaction towards material considered offensive was to switch over to a different channel (50%). One in five (21%) reacted by switching off the TV completely, or by discussing it with others (22%), while 16% continued to watch; and
• nine in ten adults are aware of the 9pm watershed and the majority (60%) still consider 9pm to be an acceptable time for programmes unsuitable for children to be broadcast.

To access the report in full, click here.