Channel 4 claims it is outgrowing every major streamer in 2026

Channel 4 has made an aggressive pitch on its streaming performance, claiming a 25% year-on-year rise in viewing minutes on its digital service and asserting growth ahead of broadcaster on-demand rivals from the BBC, ITV and Channel 5, as well as subscription platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV. It is a bold claim from a broadcaster determined to reframe the narrative around its long-term prospects.

The broadcaster framed the numbers as evidence that its dual-track model, balancing on-demand viewing with a resilient linear schedule, is paying off against a backdrop of intense competition for British eyeballs. Where some predicted public-service broadcasters would be steamrolled by the global streaming giants, Channel 4 is arguing that it has found a path to growth on both fronts at once.

The timing is deliberate. As questions persist over the funding and future of public-service broadcasting in the UK, Channel 4 is keen to demonstrate that it is not a declining legacy player but a digitally adept competitor capable of holding its own against the best-resourced media companies in the world. Strong streaming figures are central to that case.

Chasing the under-35s

Channel 4 said streaming now accounts for half of all viewing among 16 to 34-year-olds on its platform, a demographic it described as more digitally weighted than at any other commercial broadcaster. On the commercial side, it reported impacts up 14% year on year, with an 18% uplift among younger viewers, figures it is keen to put in front of advertisers chasing an audience that has drifted away from traditional television.

Younger viewers have long been Channel 4's strategic focus, a positioning that distinguishes it from rivals with broader or older audience profiles. The under-35s are both the hardest demographic for traditional broadcasters to reach and the most valuable to advertisers, making Channel 4's claimed strength here particularly significant for its commercial pitch. Capturing this audience on digital is essential if the broadcaster is to remain relevant as the cohort that grew up with appointment television ages out.

“Channel 4 said it is delivering market-leading growth across both streaming and linear, with younger audiences leading the shift to digital.”

— Channel 4 press statement

The dual-track balancing act

Channel 4's strategy rests on running two engines at once: a growing on-demand service that captures younger, digitally native viewers, and a linear schedule that still draws mass audiences for live and event programming. The argument is that the two reinforce rather than cannibalise each other, with broadcast driving discovery and streaming deepening engagement.

The elements the broadcaster is leaning on include:

• A 25% year-on-year rise in digital viewing minutes across its streaming service.
• Half of all 16 to 34 viewing on the platform now coming through streaming.
• Commercial impacts up 14% overall and 18% among younger audiences.
• A linear schedule positioned as resilient rather than in terminal decline.
• A content mix weighted towards the youth-skewing audience advertisers prize.

Such self-reported figures naturally warrant caution, as broadcasters select the metrics that flatter them most and definitions of viewing minutes and growth vary between platforms. Still, the direction of travel, towards a digitally led model anchored by a distinctive younger audience, is consistent with where Channel 4 has long said it intends to go.

Background: the funding question

Channel 4 occupies an unusual position in the British media landscape. Publicly owned but commercially funded, it carries no shareholders and receives no licence-fee income, instead relying almost entirely on advertising and content sales to fund its remit. That model leaves it especially exposed to swings in the advertising market and to the structural decline of traditional television advertising, lending urgency to its efforts to prove it can grow digital audiences and the revenue that follows them.

What it means

The claims arrive as British public-service broadcasters fight to demonstrate relevance to advertisers and policymakers. For Channel 4, which carries no shareholders but must self-fund, persuading the market that it can grow digital audiences is central to its commercial case, and to the wider argument that public-service broadcasting can survive and thrive in a streaming-dominated era. If the growth proves durable rather than a one-year spike, it strengthens Channel 4's hand both in the advertising market and in any future debate over its structure and remit.