Last updated on September 10, 2024 – 8:43 AM
New research from Ofcom has found that for the first time, online sites and apps are becoming as popular as TV news.
Television has been the UK's main source of news since the 1960s, but Ofcom's research has found that this is changing for the first time.
The report shows that in terms of how people access the news, 71% of adults now watch the news online, compared to 70% on television, indicating a generational shift in the balance of news media.
The main reason for this change is that more people are turning to social media for news: over half (52%) of UK adults now use platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to access news, up from 47% in 2023.
Television news penetration has been gradually declining in recent years, plummeting from 75% to 70% last year.
While it is primarily young people (88% of 16-24 year olds) who access news online, the number of older people accessing news online is gradually increasing as they add more online sources of news.
More than half (54%) of people over 55 find their news online, up from 45% in 2018, with most of them going directly to a news site. Just 28% access news via social media, significantly lower than 16-24 year olds (82%).
Despite this trend towards online news sources, television remains by far the primary news platform among older adults (85%) and just half of 16-24 year olds (49%).
Online news sources, especially social media platforms, are rated much lower in terms of accuracy, reliability and fairness than traditional platforms such as television and radio.
Ofcom is currently setting the framework for its next review of public service media, aiming to ensure trusted and valued public service media news is available where people consume it.
