Northern Ireland's top 10 most watched TV shows in 2021 revealed

How many did you watch?

Author: Emma DicksonPublished 17th Aug 2022

According to Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report for Northern Ireland, people aged 16-24 spend 40 minutes in front of broadcast TV in an average day – a fall of three quarters in the last ten years.

In contrast, over-54s still spend around a third of their waking day enjoying broadcast TV, sitting down for five and a half hours (330 minutes) daily.

Netflix remains the most popular SVoD service in Northern Ireland, followed by Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.

Overall, people in Northern Ireland spent an average of 3 hours and 1 minute watching broadcast TV on the TV set in 2021 - that's down by 12 minutes from 2020.

Local news progammes – UTV Live and BBC Newsline - featured prominently the list of most watched programmes in Northern Ireland in 2021.

The list was topped by Oprah with Meghan and Harry, which pulled in more than half a million viewers. Two dramas filmed in Northern Ireland - Line of Duty and Bloodlands - were the second and third most watched programmes.

Social video platforms are also popular among younger age groups - users here aged 15+ spent on average 21 minutes per day on TikTok and 39 minutes per day on Facebook and Messenger in March 2022.

People in Northern Ireland are also more likely to use radio for news than in Scotland, Wales and England.

Indeed, local radio continues to outperform national stations, accounting for 58% of all listening, highest across the four UK nations.

Check out the top ten most watched TV programmes in Northern Ireland, 2021 👇

Oprah With Meghan and Harry

531, 000 audience

Line of Duty

519, 000 audience

Bloodlands

506, 000 audience

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

399, 000 audience

UTV Live

351, 000 audience

Prime Ministerial Statement

342, 000 audience

BBC Newsline

330, 000 audience

DIY SOS

324, 000 audience

The Pembrokeshire Murders

320, 000 audience

Euro 2020

310, 000 audience

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How to listen to Cool FM:

Tune into Northern Ireland’s number 1 for music, Cool FM on 97.4FM, online, on our Rayo app, your DAB radio, or say ‘Play Cool FM’ on your Smart Speaker. We play you the biggest hits from the world’s hottest artists, from Pete Snodden in the morning to the NI Hit 40.