Still Game was most-watched Scottish show of 2018
- Published
An episode of Still Game was the most-watched programme in Scotland in 2018
An episode of Still Game was the most-watched TV programme in Scotland last year, according to TV regulator Ofcom.
About 1,373,000 people tuned in to watch the BBC One Scotland comedy when it was broadcast on 15 March.
The Ofcom report said traditional broadcast viewing still made up the bulk of TV screen time in Scotland despite the rise of streaming services.
However, the average daily viewing time of three hours 33 minutes was down by 5.6% on the previous year.
This was 13 minutes less than the 2017 figure and almost an hour down on 2010.
The steepest decline in viewing was among 25-34 year olds but viewing by 35-44 year olds also went down significantly.
Over 54s watch the most TV in Scotland but even their viewing habits showed a decline in the time spent on broadcast TV.
Meanwhile, viewing of non-broadcast services on the TV set - such as streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, or gaming - increased by eight minutes a day in 2018, to 48 minutes per person, per day.
Most viewing is still traditional broadcast TV such as Hogmanay Live presented by Jackie Bird
The Ofcom report - Media nations: Scotland 2019, external - said more than half of TV households (56%) in Scotland had a television connected to the internet.
It said half of adults claimed to use an on-demand service, with Netflix (32%), BBC iPlayer (28%) and Amazon Prime Video (22%) being the most-used.
More than half of all broadcast TV viewing in Scotland in 2018 was to the main five Public Service Broadcasting channels - BBC One, BBC Two, STV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
A list of the top 20 most-viewed programmes showed that the second episode from the eighth series of Still Game, Grim Up North, achieved more viewers than any other programme.
The final episode of BBC drama Bodyguard was the second most-watched programme of the year in Scotland, followed by the World Cup Semi-Final match between Croatia and England.
Other Scottish programmes in the top 20 included Hogmanay Live, which had 994,000 viewers in Scotland, and Only an Excuse on the same night.
An edition of BBC Scotland's main news programme Reporting Scotland on 28 February, when snow and ice brought treacherous weather conditions to the country, attracted an audience of 902,000.
Top 20 most-watched programmes in Scotland: 2018
Scottish actor Richard Madden starred in Bodyguard
Still Game - BBC One Scotland - 15/03/2018 - 1,373,000 viewers in Scotland
Bodyguard - BBC One Scotland - 23/09/2018 - 1,296,000
World Cup 2018: Cro V Eng - STV/ITV - 11/07/2018 - 1,260,000
Strictly Come Dancing: The Final - BBC One Scotland - 15/12/2018 - 1,224,000
I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here! - STV/ITV - 22/11/2018 - 1,184,000
World Cup 2018: Tun V Eng - BBC One Scotland - 18/06/2018 - 1,162,000
Strictly Come Dancing - BBC One Scotland - 24/11/2018 - 1,124,000
World Cup 2018: Col V Eng - STV/ITV - 03/07/2018 - 1,070,000
Hogmanay Live - BBC One Scotland - 31/12/2018 - 994,000
World Cup 2018: Swe V Eng - BBC One Scotland - 07/07/2018 - 958,000
Only An Excuse? - BBC One Scotland - 31/12/2018 - 953,000
Strictly Come Dancing: The Results - BBC One Scotland - 18/11/2018 - 950,000
Six Nations: Scotland V England - BBC One Scotland - 24/02/2018 - 948,000
World Cup 2018: Fra V Cro - BBC One Scotland - 15/07/2018 - 915,000
World Cup 2018: Fra V Bel - BBC One Scotland - 10/07/2018 - 910,000
Reporting Scotland - BBC One Scotland - 28/02/2018 - 902,000
World Cup 2018: Bra V Bel - BBC One Scotland - 06/07/2018 - 901,000
Coronation Street - STV/ITV - 22/01/2018 - 898,000
The Great British Bake Off - Channel 4 - 30/10/2018 - 890,000
Shetland - BBC One Scotland - 20/03/2018 - 887,000
News consumption
The Ofcom report said BBC One and STV's early evening news bulletins each reached about three in 10 viewers every night.
Reporting Scotland attracted a 30.2% share of the slot's viewing in Scotland, slightly down on 2017 (30.9%).
The STV News at Six attracted a lower share at 29.6% (26.4% in 2017).
The report said television remained the most-used platform for news consumption for people in Scotland, with BBC One and STV coming first and second in the list of most-used news sources.
Radio listeners
The watchdog also looked at radio listening, saying more than 85% of adults tuned in every week during the first quarter of 2019.
Radio listeners in Scotland listened to an average of 19 hours 42 minutes of radio each week, it said.
About half of adults in Scotland listened to local commercial stations (51%), with 17% listening to BBC Radio Scotland.
The report said the use of smart speakers had increased, with a fifth (21%) of homes in Scotland now owning one.
It said one in four adults had listened to podcasts and listen-again services. This was lower than the proportion for the UK overall (33%).