KPop Demon Hunters, Blue Lights or YouTube – what do people in NI watch?
BBC
KPop Demon Hunters was the most watched film or TV show in Northern Ireland in 2025.
The animated film was already the Netflix streaming platform’s most watched movie ever.
According to the media regulator Ofcom, it was also hugely popular in Northern Ireland, with an average of over 600,000 viewers.
But the BBC’s police drama Blue Lights was the second most watched programme with over 500,000 for the first episode of season three.
Netflix
The figures are contained in Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report for Northern Ireland.
It researched what media people in Northern Ireland watched and listened to and how they did it.
It looked at audience habits for broadcast TV and radio, as well as video and audio streaming services.
It suggested, for instance, that while traditional broadcast TV – such as that provided by the BBC and UTV – was still popular, audiences were spending less time watching it.
How do people get their news?
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BBC One was the most commonly used (63%) using it, closely followed by ITV/UTV
Google Search and Facebook were also popularer app or site for news
According to Ofcom, only one newspaper – The Sun – featured in the top 20 news
Overall, the BBC was the most popular
But both BBC Newsline and UTV Live’s early evening news programmes were watched by almost a quarter of adults in Northern Ireland (331,000) in an average week
What about watching TV and video?
Overall, live broadcast TV was watched more in Northern Ireland than any other UK nation.
But the time people spent watching live TV fell to one hour, 50 minutes a day – down 16 minutes since 2024.
When it came to subscription on-demand, Amazon Prime Video was the most popular service in Northern Ireland followed by Netflix and Disney+.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of homes used Amazon Prime, making Northern Ireland the only part of the UK where Netflix was not the most popular streaming service.
But was YouTube especially popular among young adults?
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According to Ofcom, almost three quarters (71%) of adults aged 16-34 watched at least three minutes of YouTube per week.
Overall, people in Northern Ireland spent an average of 40 minutes a day watching YouTube across all their devices, like phones and laptops.
But almost half of YouTube viewing was on a TV set, a rise since 2024.
BBC News NI nowproduces a range of dedicated reportsfor the site.
‘YouTube fiends’
Seventeen-year-old Faith from Newtownards and Ella from Holywood, also 17, are self professed “YouTube fiends”.
Ella watches it on the go, while she is having dinner and in the evening as a way to relax.
“I like watching day in the life videos, hauls, and people playing games – anything fun really.”
The friends said their viewing habits are “very different” to their parents.
Faith said, while her parents enjoy history documentaries she is the “other end of the spectrum and enjoys Disney and anything that allows me to escape”.
Faith added that while she prefers streaming services over TV, they aren’t perfect as some series of her favourite shows are only available for a short time.
“You need to have multiple services to be able to watch all of the things you want for an unlimited time,” she said.
Peter Thompson, from Newtownabbey, said his viewing habits are a “mixture” of media types.
“I’ve recently had a TV installed in my room. I was never allowed it growing up so I’ve been watching streaming services,” he said.
“At the same time, there’s something nostalgic and important about physical media if it’s a DVD or a game.
“There is something important about holding a physical copy because it feels like you’re owning that TV series, that movie, that video game.”
But, he added, streaming gives “unlimited access to most things”.
“I like a mixture of stuff like sci-fi and horror, but even comedy sometimes or, a real gripping period drama.”
He gets a lot of his news on social media and
Lillian Lawrence, who said she has not used a streaming service before, prefers to consume news by watching it on TV, while Katelyn Moore “would rather read it”.
“I find it easier just to read it and fully digest it because we tend to talk over the TV,” she said
Katelyn reads news from multiple
The Magherafelt pair typically watch TV for “a couple of hours a day”, mostly quiz and game shows.
The pair are particularly interested in films and series based in Northern Ireland, with Katelyn choosing to study Derry Girls as part of her university degree.
Student Freya Rocks, from Belfast, who is at university in Scotland, uses a mix of TV streaming services and YouTube and enjoys cartoons, medical and crime documentaries.
They consume news regularly through both TV, apps and X.
“I like knowing what’s going on. It’s good to see what is going on in the wider world.”
What were the most-watched TV programmes and films in Northern Ireland?
The animated film KPop Demon Hunters, which follows the adventures of fictional K-pop girl band Huntr/x as they fight demons, topped the charts in 2025 with around 616,000 viewers on Netflix.
Episodes of Ms. Rachel and the drama Adolescence on the streamer were also in the top five most-watched programmes in 2025.
The BBC’s Blue Lights was the second most-watched with around 508,000 viewers.
Other programmes made by the BBC and ITV like The Celebrity Traitors, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! and The 1% Club game show also made the top ten.
Podcasts are becoming more popular
Almost nine-in-ten adults (88%) in Northern Ireland listen to radio every week.
Radio Ulster was the “clear leader” on weekday mornings for people living outside Belfast, with peak listening for the start of The Nolan Show and other peaks later in the day for Talkback and Evening Extra.
Within the Belfast area, Cool FM was slightly more popular with listeners than Radio Ulster.
The way people listen to radio has changed, with over a quarter now listening online.
A quarter of adults in Northern Ireland also now listen to podcasts each week, up from 14% just four years ago.
Younger adults, aged 16-34, are most likely to listen to podcasts – with over a third (34%) listening each week.
The Joe Rogan Experience was the most popular podcast in Northern Ireland, with comedian Shane Todd’s Tea with Me second.
The Bomb Squad Podcast with comedians Colin Geddis and Aaron McCann and the Give My Head Podcast with members of the Give My Head Peace team were also in the top ten in Northern Ireland.
Music streaming services have also become more popular with almost half of adults in Northern Ireland using Spotify, for instance.
