Netflix and Amazon target older viewers as the BBC goes after youth

Netflix and Amazon have stepped up efforts to target older viewers amid disillusionment with the BBC over its push towards a younger audience.

The streaming providers are now threatening to lure the broadcaster's core viewership as they commission a record number of shows designed to be popular among the over-35s.

According to media researchers Ampere Analysis, genres where audiences are most skewed towards older people, such as crime and documentaries, made up almost half of commissions from services including Netflix and Amazon.

Meanwhile, they are devoting less attention to areas that are not as likely to be popular among older audiences, such as romance and horror.

The figures, based on an analysis of original shows from Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services ordered in the first three months of the year, come as the BBC has promised to make appealing to under-35s a priority.

Earlier this year the BBC confirmed it was shifting its attention to "young-appealing" content in an effort to reverse an exodus of 16-34-year-old viewers as fears grow the next generation of licence-fee payers will turn to internet services.

An extra £40 million was budgeted for 16-34 channel BBC Three as part of efforts to invest in more drama and comedy, while BBC Four, the channel with the oldest viewership, is to become an "archive" channel, meaning it will focus on showing repeats.

Minal Modha, an analyst at Ampere, said that services were responding to an influx of older viewers who had signed up to streaming services as an alternative to traditional broadcasters.“

"The fastest growing viewing age demographics are 35 to 44. These platforms are seeing that and saying there are these people on our platform and we need to be catering towards them,” she said.

Ampere said programming designed for older audiences included Netflix’s The 39 Steps, an adaptation of John Buchan’s 1915 thriller starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and an upcoming documentary about the serial killer Dennis Nilsen.

Crime and thrillers, dramas, and documentaries, the three genres where audiences are most skewed towards over-35s, made up almost half of commissions from services including Netflix and Amazon.

Horror, romance and reality made up less than 15 per cent. “These audiences have traditionally been linear TV’s core viewers,” Ampere said.

The BBC has been instructed to appeal to younger tastes amid fears it faces losing a generation of viewers that could threaten its place in public life. Two in five streaming viewers have said they can imagine watching no broadcast television in five years, according to Ofcom.

Abi Watson, of media researcher Enders Analysis, said that streaming services were also turning to older viewers as demand among younger ones became saturated.

“The opportunity to drive up new subscribers in the under-35s bracket is small,” she said. “Older adults also tend to be later adopters of new technologies. Given how long streaming has been around now, it’s not surprising that the streamers are starting to pick up traction in this age group.”

Ofcom’s annual report on the BBC in November found that satisfaction levels among viewers aged 55 and over had declined in 2020.

However, it also found that the broadcaster was continuing to struggle to reach young audiences. It said that 87 per cent of the population use BBC services, a decline from 92 per cent three years earlier.