THE World Cup football match that saw England knocked out of the tournament was the most watched television programme in Scotland last year, a new report has revealed.
Around 1.1 million tuned in to watch the men’s team’s defeat to France – just ahead of the viewing figures for the coverage of the Queen’s funeral, according to Ofcom.
In third place was BBC TV series The Tourist, which starred Jamie Dornan.
The broadcasting regulator said while the top 10 list of most-viewed programmes was largely similar across all UK nations, Scotland was the only UK nation in which crime drama Shetland appeared in the top ten.
Other findings from the Ofcom Media Nations report revealed that on average people in Scotland spent three hours a day watching TV in 2022 – the most of any nation in the UK and down by 27 minutes compared to 2021.
The report also said that, for the first time, there is evidence of a significant decline in average daily broadcast TV viewing among core older audiences aged 55 plus to five hours and 20 minutes daily – a drop of 10% year on year, and down 5% on pre-pandemic levels.
It found nearly two-thirds of viewers are satisfied with public service broadcast channels, such as BBC, STV and Channel 4.
But while 70% said they performed well in providing programmes made for UK audiences, only 48% said they were successful in delivering “regional programmes that keep me informed about my area” and 47% agreed when it comes to “programmes that feature Scotland".
Viewers in Scotland were more likely to say that BBC TV channels performed badly at delivering "regional programmes that keep me informed about my area" – at 17% compared to the UK total of 10%.
However for the ITV and STV channels, viewers were more likely to say they delivered well on "programmes that feature Scotland" at 69% vs 49% in the UK.
The rise in digital technology was also seen in figures which show 53% of households in Scotland have a Smart speaker – higher than any other nation in the UK – with Amazon Echo the most popular brand.
Nearly seven out of 10 adults in Scotland – 69% – remain more likely to use TV channels for their news updates than social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, used by 54%.
BBC One Scotland was Scotland’s most-used news source at 43%, followed by STV/ITV1 and Facebook, both on 40%.
STV news was the most used-source for news about Scotland at 33%, the report found, with around a quarter using BBC One.
However, when the BBC One and BBC Scotland channels were included together, this rose to 34% across programmes such as Reporting Scotland and The Nine.
The report also found the BBC maintained levels of hours and spend for productions made in Scotland in 2022.
However, the proportion of spend fell by 0.2 percentage points to 8.4% in 2022, and the proportion of hours was down by 0.6 percentage points to 14.3%.
Almost nine in 10 adults also tuned into live radio across Scotland last year, for an average of 18.8 hours each week.
Glenn Preston, Ofcom’s Scotland director, said: “While this year has seen the steepest annual decline in daily broadcast viewing time, Scotland continues to be the UK's biggest TV-watching nation.
“Like TV, we are also seeing a streaming revolution in the listening space, with listeners now having a myriad of choice between online music services and podcasts.
“But 100 years since the BBC first broadcast to listeners in Scotland from the attic of its 202 Bath Street base in Glasgow, traditional radio continues to be a much-loved platform for audiences across Scotland.”
