YouTube closing in on Facebook as the UK’s biggest news app
Key Points
- Facebook reaches 39% of UK adults for news and YouTube 33%, with the gap halving since 2025
- TV sets accounted for 46% of in-home YouTube viewing in 2025, up from 27% in 2022
- 52% of YouTube news users saw BBC News content on the platform in the past month
- Social media and video platforms now take 24% of daily news time, almost level with TV on 25%
- 68% of children aged 12 to 15 trust news on YouTube, against 45% on TikTok
Facebook reached 39% of UK adults for news in the past month against 33% for YouTube, and Ofcom said the gap between the two has halved since 2025.
The figures appear in the regulator’s News Report 2026, published on Tuesday (15 September), which found 60% of UK adults now see or hear news on at least one social media or video-sharing platform each month.
Instagram ranked third for news at 26%, followed by WhatsApp on 21%, TikTok on 20% and X and Snapchat on 13% each. LinkedIn reached 6% of adults for news, while Reddit and Telegram each reached 4%.
Ofcom said YouTube occupies a distinctive position in the news ecosystem because it combines content from broadcasters, publishers, influencers and user-generated sources.
The regulator added that YouTube increasingly competes directly with broadcasters as people watch it on connected TV sets.
Barb data cited in the report shows that TV sets accounted for 46% of all in-home YouTube viewing in 2025, up from 27% in 2022. Ofcom said this shift into the living room has strengthened YouTube’s role as a news and media provider.
Much of the news people see on YouTube comes from established broadcasters rather than online-native creators. Among adults who saw news on YouTube in the past month, 69% reported seeing content from a UK broadcaster, 52% saw BBC News, 29% saw Sky and 20% saw ITV.
Influencers and independent commentators reached 10% of YouTube news users, compared with 19% on X and 22% on TikTok. Online-only news providers reached just 3% of YouTube news users.
BBC News was also the most followed news provider on YouTube, with 36% of the platform’s news users following it. Public service broadcasters collectively were followed by 42% of YouTube news users, the same share as on X.
Ofcom estimates UK adults now spend 72 minutes a day on news, up from 61 minutes last year. Social media and video-sharing platforms account for 17 of those minutes, or 24% of the total, almost level with television on 18 minutes and 25%.
The proportion of total news time going to television has fallen from 31% to 25% in a year, even though the absolute minutes spent on TV news held steady. Online intermediaries as a whole, including search and AI, now account for 37% of daily news time.
Google, which owns YouTube alongside Search, Google News and Gemini, reached 60% of UK adults for news in the past month. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, reached 51%.
Age drives the split between platforms sharply, with 65% of 16 to 24-year-olds using video-sharing platforms for news against 6% of those aged 75 and over. Social media excluding video platforms reached 70% of 16 to 24-year-olds and 18% of over-75s.
Among children aged 12 to 15, YouTube ranked second for news on 38%, behind TikTok on 42% and ahead of Facebook on 29%. Children rated YouTube more trustworthy than most rivals, with 68% saying they trust news seen there against 45% for TikTok and 62% for Facebook.
Adults remain sceptical of news on social platforms generally, with 39% of users saying the news they see on social media and video-sharing platforms is trustworthy. Broadcast TV scored 65% on the same measure.
Ofcom cautioned that changes to its survey this year, including a broader definition of news and asking about the past month rather than “nowadays”, mean the 2026 figures are not directly comparable with earlier years.
