Ofcom find millions of Britons skipping sleep to binge-watch TV shows

With 16 - 24 year olds being the most heavily effected

When Netflix began streaming content online, no-one quite realised how huge the service’s impact on the TV industry would be.

One of the major steps towards world-domination was the creation of original content, their first show being House of Cards, which debuted in 2013. Now, Netflix boasts upwards of 100 million subscribers worldwide.

However, thanks to the phenomenon, binge-watching has become a very normal viewing habit, mainly thanks to their model of releasing entire seasons at once.

Ofcom has since released data revealing that around 10 million Britons have skipped sleep, or made themselves tired, because of binge-watching.

As noted by the BBC, more than half of adults (55%) watch back-to-back episodes of the same television show at least once a month, a third of whom admitted to losing sleep as a result.

The results are more extreme with viewers aged between 16-24, rising to 82% for the same category, one in 10 admitting they ‘binge’ daily. From this age group, 47% said they have taken steps to cut back on binging.

The most popular on-demand service for Britons is iPlayer, used by 63% of adults, followed by ITV Hub (40%), YouTube (38%) and Netflix (31%).

Live broadcast television continues to flourish, 91% of people still watching ‘traditional’ television; the viewing time, however, has decreased 14% on average since 2010.

Over-64s bucked the trend, OAPs watching an average of 5 hours 44 minutes per day, up 50 minutes from 2006. On the other hand, 16-24s watched just 1 hour 54 minutes, down 41 minutes since 2006.

​Ofcom labelled the discovery as “box set Britain” — whether anyone actually uses the term “box set” when referring to streaming apart from the BBC and Ofcom remains debatable, but we appreciate the need for a catchy, alliterative term.

"Technology has revolutionised the way we watch TV,” Lindsey Fussell of the media watchdog said. “The days of waiting a week for the next episode are largely gone, with people finding it hard to resist watching multiple episodes around the house or on the move.

"But live television still has a special draw, and the power to bring the whole family together in a common experience."