The BRC TVM Establishment Survey 2026 overturns one of the South African media industry’s biggest assumptions: television viewing has not disappeared. It has evolved.
Based on more than 15,000 face-to-face interviews across every province and demographic group, the study provides the new population foundation for the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa’s Total Video Measurement (TVM) currency.
Rather than presenting isolated statistics, the research paints a broader picture of how South Africans consume video across broadcast television, streaming services and social media. The findings suggest the future of video is not about one platform replacing another, but about audiences moving fluidly between them.
Television remains the centre of viewing
Around 68% of South Africans watched television or video in the previous seven days. Among those viewers, 71% spend more than two hours watching on a typical weekday.
Most significantly, 86% still watch the programmes they watch most on a television set. Entertainment and relaxation remain the primary reasons people watch TV, suggesting television continues to function as a shared leisure activity rather than simply another content platform.
“For me, the biggest finding was not that television is disappearing but just how broad video consumption has become around it. South Africa is clearly a mobile-first market. Mobile phones are available in most households, while access to traditional television varies considerably by geography and socio-economic group,” said Gary Whitaker, CEO of the BRC SA.
“At the same time, video consumption remains extremely strong. What has changed is the route through which people reach that video. Television, streaming and social video increasingly sit alongside one another rather than operating as separate worlds.”
The BRC argues that television still commands scheduled attention — something short-form video has yet to replace.
A new baseline for measuring video
While the survey contains plenty of headline numbers, Whitaker says its real significance lies in establishing a new measurement foundation for a fundamentally different media market.
He cautions against treating the 2026 TVM Establishment Survey as a direct trend comparison with the previous establishment survey because both the market and the methodology have changed.
“The previous television measurement foundation was built for a much more television-centric environment. Since then, we have seen substantial growth in internet connectivity, smartphones, connected televisions and streaming services, together with changes in household structure and the way people define and consume television and video,” he explains.
“The important finding is therefore not simply that one number has risen, or another has fallen. It is that the structure of the video market itself has changed. The new research gives us a contemporary foundation from which to measure that market rather than continuing to extrapolate from an increasingly dated one.”
Streaming is now mainstream
If television remains dominant, streaming has firmly entered the mainstream.
Almost half of South African adults (48%) used a streaming service during the previous week. Netflix is the country’s largest paid streaming platform, while YouTube is by far the biggest free streaming service.
The survey also shows streaming serves a different purpose from broadcast television. It is primarily:
- watched alone
- watched on mobile phones
- consumed at home
- valued for convenience rather than exclusive content
That contrast reinforces the idea that streaming complements television rather than replacing it.
Why advertisers need to think beyond one screen
The findings also carry significant implications for marketers, who increasingly need to understand audiences across multiple viewing environments.
For advertisers and marketers, Whitaker says reach can no longer be understood through a single screen.
“Broadcast television still delivers significant scale and shared viewing, but consumers are also watching video on mobile phones, connected televisions, computers and streaming platforms. For marketers, that makes the question less about choosing television or digital and more about understanding the contribution of each environment to total campaign reach,” he says.
“The opportunity is to plan video as an ecosystem: use mass-reach platforms for scale and shared experience, and digital and streaming environments for additional reach, frequency, targeting and different forms of engagement. That is what Total Video Measurement is intended to enable.”
Measurement still has to catch up with fragmentation
While audiences are watching more video than ever, the industry still faces the challenge of measuring fragmented viewing habits consistently.
Whitaker says fragmentation remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
“Fragmentation is as real as it ever was. Access is unequal, particularly when you compare broadband connectivity and device ownership across socio-economic groups and between metropolitan and rural South Africa,” he notes.
“For the market, that means television remains at the heart of video consumption, but our measurement needs to evolve to capture viewing across an increasingly diverse range of platforms and devices. The positive side is that the new measurement system is being specifically designed around that reality.”
The BRC presented the research during a webinar last week, where Whitaker was joined by Karin Schut, project lead for the establishment survey, and Sanna Fourie, currency statistician at Ask Africa.
The SABC still ‘sets the table’
One of the strongest themes to emerge from the webinar was the enduring role of the SABC in delivering mass audiences.
A key takeaway was Whitaker’s observation that the public broadcaster still “sets the table” for South African audiences.
“The SABC operates within a national footprint and its content forms part of the everyday media lives of a very broad cross-section of South Africans. Its combination of free-to-air availability, local languages, news, entertainment, drama and major national events means that it continues to provide common viewing experiences at scale,” he says.
“So when we say that the SABC still ‘sets the table’, we are not saying that every South African watches the same thing. The media environment is considerably more fragmented than that. We are saying that it remains one of the places around which very large and diverse audiences can still congregate.”
Why ad budgets keep moving to digital
If television still delivers the country’s biggest audiences, why are advertising budgets continuing to migrate online?
Whitaker argues that reach and advertising investment are related — but they are not the same thing.
“Digital offers advertisers attributes that are understandably attractive: targeting, measurability, optimisation, interactivity and the ability to reach particular audience segments at particular moments. But moving money towards digital does not mean that mass-reach television has ceased to be valuable.
“In many cases the two perform different jobs. The more important question for advertisers is whether the allocation of money between platforms reflects the actual contribution each makes to reach, frequency and campaign outcomes. Until we measure video consistently across platforms, there is a danger of comparing metrics that were never designed to be directly comparable. That is one of the problems TVM is intended to address.”
Should brands rebalance their video spend?
The survey suggests marketers should rethink how they plan video — but not necessarily spend less on television.
Asked whether brands should rebalance investment between broadcast TV, streaming and social video, Whitaker says the starting point should always be the audience.
“Yes, although ‘rebalance’ should not automatically mean ‘move money away from television’. It should mean planning from the audience backwards. Broadcast TV can provide extraordinary scale, cultural relevance and shared viewing. Streaming can provide additional and sometimes highly engaged audiences.
“Social video provides enormous reach and is particularly important on mobile. The optimum mix will depend on the audience, campaign objective and creative idea. What the ES makes very clear is that treating any one of those environments as if it represents the whole South African video audience is increasingly difficult to justify.”
Co-viewing remains one of TV’s biggest advantages
Another important finding is that television viewing is still often shared, something digital metrics do not always capture.
Whitaker says co-viewing remains extremely important in South Africa.
“An advertising impression delivered to a television set is not necessarily an impression delivered to one person. Families, friends and guests frequently watch together, and those additional viewers matter when assessing the true reach and frequency of a campaign.
“Co-viewing can also create something digital advertising often struggles to replicate, which is simultaneous exposure and conversation around the same piece of content.”
Sport is still appointment viewing
Among all content genres, sport continues to stand apart because audiences actively plan to watch it.
Whitaker describes sport as a “standing order”.
“Sport behaves differently from a great deal of other content because much of it is appointment-based. You know when the Springboks are playing. You know when a major football match begins. People plan around those moments. There is anticipation before the event, conversation during it and discussion afterwards,” he says.
“Calling sport a ‘standing order’ captures that intentionality. It isn’t simply content people encounter while browsing. Major sport creates a specific time and place at which large audiences actively choose to assemble, often together. That makes it particularly valuable for brands because the viewing occasion itself can carry emotion and cultural significance.”
Whitaker also believes sport has an unusual ability to cross demographic boundaries, with one qualification.
“I would be reluctant to describe it as the most evenly distributed genre without applying a very specific statistical test to that proposition. What we can confidently say is that major sporting events can unite audiences that otherwise have very different viewing repertoires,” he explains.
“Age, income and geography may affect what people watch most often, but major national sporting occasions can transcend many of those distinctions. That makes sport one of the relatively few remaining forms of content capable of creating genuinely large shared cultural moments.”
What the findings mean for younger audiences
The survey also points to generational differences in viewing habits, particularly around entertainment and news.
Asked how marketers should target younger audiences who are choosing movies over news, Whitaker says brands need to start with audience behaviour rather than assumptions.
“I would start by asking where and how they are accessing the content that interests them. Younger consumers typically have a broader range of video options and are more comfortable moving between platforms and devices.
“If movies and entertainment are stronger entry points than traditional scheduled news for a particular younger segment, marketers need to follow that behaviour. The lesson is to not merely ‘advertise around movies’. Creative format, device, platform, duration and context all become important.”
Social media casts the widest net
Finally, the survey reinforces social media’s role as South Africa’s broadest video distribution layer — but Whitaker warns against treating every video impression as equal.
Asked what it means when the survey shows social media is “the widest net”, Whitaker says marketers need to distinguish between reach and attention.
“Social platforms have become an important distribution layer for video. The TVM ES found claimed social-video viewing within the past seven days to be extremely broad. For a large part of the population, particularly in a mobile-first market, it is part of mainstream video behaviour.
“But ‘widest net’ should not be confused with ‘best platform for every objective’. A short-form social-video exposure is not automatically equivalent to someone watching a programme, a major sporting event or long-form entertainment on a television screen.
“The challenge for marketers is to understand reach, attention, context, duplication and the role each platform plays within the consumer’s overall video day.”
