Humour & social media buzz: A new study explores the viewing habits of young audiences across four countries in Europe, and explores what it entails for content production
By Jeanette Steemers, King’s College London
Research Insight presented by the Public Media Alliance
in partnership with IAPMR
Although many British-produced shows including Netflix teen dramas like Sex Education and Heartstopper are hugely popular with younger audiences, there are clearly challenges around funding European drama, not least because domestic commissioners including public service broadcasters have less money to spend, but so do the streamers after a boom.
In a previous Research Insight, we focused on the shift of young people’s viewing to streaming platforms and how PSM is struggling to attract younger viewers. Our final report for the Screen Encounters with Britain project brings together findings from our case studies in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy to examine comparatively how young Europeans aged 16-34 engage with British films and TV programmes in a digital environment. First thing to note: Young people are still watching ‘longform’ screen content (>20 min), but PSM is not their first choice.