Global TV viewing slips as scripted shows continue to dominate, says Glance

MUMBAI: The remote may be sharing space with streaming apps, but television is far from changing the channel. Global audiences watched an average of 2 hours and 13 minutes of television a day in 2025, just five minutes less than the previous year, as scripted dramas, reality entertainment and live sports continued to anchor viewing habits, according to Glance’s latest One TV Year in the World Edition report.

The annual study, which analyses live TV, broadcast video-on-demand (BVOD) and streaming consumption across more than 100 territories, has been launched for the first time as an interactive dashboard on the OneGlance platform, offering a more comprehensive view of global television behaviour.

The report found that scripted content remained the world’s most-watched genre, with locally produced programmes driving much of the success. Around 70 per cent of the top scripted shows were produced domestically, highlighting the continued appeal of local storytelling despite the rise of global streaming platforms.

In the United States, Watson and Tracker emerged as the leading scripted series, while Call the Midwife and Gavin & Stacey: A Fond Farewell topped the rankings in the United Kingdom.

Entertainment remained the second-largest contributor to television consumption worldwide. Reality competitions accounted for 48 per cent of entertainment programming, with enduring global formats continuing to resonate across markets. Dancing with the Stars, first launched in 2004, ranked among the top entertainment shows in 10 countries, while The Masked Singer, launched in 2015, featured in the national rankings of nine markets.

Live programming also retained its importance. Sporting events continued to attract massive audiences, with the Super Bowl recording its highest-ever US audience of 130 million viewers, an 8 per cent increase over 2024, helped by its availability on streaming platform Tubi.

The report also observed that global events influenced viewing preferences. In Europe, news channels gained 0.6 percentage points in market share as audiences increasingly turned to factual programming amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.

A key addition to this year’s report is the Total Video section, which measures the combined share of television broadcasters and streaming platforms in overall video consumption, providing a broader picture of how audiences divide their viewing time across traditional and digital services.

Available through a fully interactive dashboard, the report allows users to compare viewing trends across countries, markets and time periods while also offering downloadable BVOD insights for participating regions.

As the boundaries between broadcast television and streaming continue to blur, Glance’s latest findings suggest that while viewing habits are evolving, quality storytelling, live events and local content remain firmly at the heart of what audiences choose to watch.