The Future of TV: Key Takeaways from MTM’s Breakfast Club

On 9 September 2026, we welcomed senior leaders from the UK’s broadcasting, streaming and online video industry to the Century Club in Soho for The Breakfast Club: The Future of TV. The big question: what are the most pressing challenges facing the TV and broadcast industry right now?

Exclusive research from 3 Reasons set the scene for two panels of industry experts: one on standing out in a crowded market, the other on winning over younger audiences.

Missed the session? Here are the key takeaways you need to know.

A market getting harder to win

Rob Collier and Aneka Ganatra from MTM’s 3 Reasons team opened by stating what everyone in the room already feels: the market is intensely competitive, and audiences have more ways than ever to spend their time. At the same time, the amount of viewing happening on TV is declining, even once social platforms and other non-traditional video are added in. Crucially, younger audiences aren’t simply growing into older viewing habits as they age; their patterns are staying different.

3 Reasons framed the issues around a new way to think about prominence: physical availability (how a service shows up in the interface) plus mental availability (whether it’s front of mind when someone doesn’t know what to watch). Search journeys, where a viewer already knows what they want, make up 60 to 75% of all TV journeys and are won through content and marketing. Browse journeys are rarer but punch above their weight, won through brand identity, catalogue depth and a strong recommendation engine.

The data backs this up. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, viewing on social platforms accounts for the majority of viewing, and traditional broadcast content is in the minority (source: Ofcom Media Nations 2026). Insights from MTM’s ScreenThink draws a link between viewing data and “Browse Destinations”: when they don’t know what they want to watch, younger audiences navigate to SVOD and YouTube rather than the linear grid. Browse destinations benefit from a virtuous cycle, where strong recommendations keep audiences engaged cheaply and the revenue funds further investment; miss it, and a service ends up spending heavily just to pull viewers in for one title at a time.

Standing out from the crowd

Our second session, chaired by MTM’s managing partner James Bryson, brought together Alex Foley (VP of insights and strategy, Warner Bros. Discovery), Emma Tibbetts (director of programme, UKTV) and Sally McBeth (head of product for TV and devices, BBC). The panel uncovered how services build mental and physical availability, the importance of brand identity, and the role of algorithms in shaping what audiences choose to watch.

Alex opened with a simple point on “the choice paradox”: near-infinite choice isn’t always good for viewers, many of whom now feel overwhelmed rather than under-served. Helping people cut through that complexity is central to competing for attention.

“Viewers have almost infinite choice of content now. It’s a good thing on the whole, but too much choice can actually make the decision harder. For us the challenge is about helping consumers navigate that complexity to get to the content they want to watch.”

Alex Foley, VP of Insights and Strategy, Warner Bros. Discovery

Sally spoke to how much harder physical prominence has become for broadcasters more generally: guaranteed spots on the remote control have given way to fragmented smart TV homepages, where manufacturers are increasingly monetising screen space and every integration needs its own negotiation.

Emma talked about the balancing act facing UKTV as a self-defined “challenger network”. Teams have to work harder for the same visibility by pairing distribution deals with strong marketing and PR, while keeping a “one foot in, one foot out” content strategy that stays close to the core audience while still stretching into new territory.

The underlying theme for our panellists was alignment: getting content, product and marketing teams pulling in the same direction around a major launch or a longer-term strategy, rather than working to separate plans.

Also on the agenda was AI. Our panellists agreed metadata and content discovery have become commercial questions as much as technical ones, with Sally pointing out how crucial it is for the BBC as a public service broadcaster to draw clear boundaries on how AI is used within their content. “Being able to be distinct between what is generative AI and what’s just use of AI to offer an experience is a helpful distinction,” she explains. “We might use AI to adjust or crop our images because portrait is more performant in certain spaces. But when it comes to our news output, we absolutely can’t use generative AI to touch up images to be more appealing because audience trust is absolutely at the forefront for us.”

Attracting and keeping younger audiences

Our final panel, chaired by MTM’s research director Marina Graham, brought together Chloe Straw (operations director at Goalhanger), Holly Friend (writer, cultural strategist and founder of Recurring Character) and Mairi Brewis (head of mediaco and responsibility partnerships at YouTube). Together, they discussed how streaming services can win the hearts and minds of 16-34 year olds, and what the implications are for commissioning, distribution, discovery and design.

Chloe challenged the assumption that young audiences only want short-form content, pointing to strong engagement with long-form storytelling and talent-led shows rather than short clips. Mairi agreed, putting longer view durations for long-form video and podcasts down to more younger viewers watching this kind of content on connected TVs.

Holly was sceptical of the “microdrama” trend, much discussed as a snackable format that’s seemingly won over Gen Z. Instead, Holly pointed to a real appetite among young viewers for immersive, phone-free experiences, namely a resurgence in long-form cinema. “The Odyssey, a three-hour-long film, was hugely popular with Gen Z,” says Holly. “People want to be immersed in long-form storytelling experiences, partly as a way to retrain their brains. They’ve grown up seeing headlines saying social media is potentially ruining their attention spans, so they’re using cinema to focus, find connection and meet like-minded people.”

So what can broadcasters and media owners do to win over this demographic seeking community and relatability? Chloe’s answer: start with the content and the talent, then build the audience around it, rather than choosing a platform or an audience first.

“Start with the content. Allow yourself to create what you love, find really brilliant talent to tell those stories, then build your audiences from that, rather than trying to do it the other way around.”
Chloe Straw, Operations Director, Goalhanger

Mairi’s experience working with media owners on YouTube is a useful example of why platform strategy needs to start with an objective, not a publishing checklist. Mairi described broadcasters using it differently depending on their goals: monetising archive, testing talent and formats, reaching younger viewers, supporting digital-first commissioning or building fandom around established shows.

MTM’s CEO Caroline Wren closed out The Breakfast Club by tying the two panels together: winning in TV now depends on physical and mental availability working in step, with brand marketing, product experience and content strategy all pointing the same way.

Talk to us

This is the challenge 3 Reasons and MTM help clients work through every day: understanding how viewing behaviour is changing, where prominence is being won or lost, and what that means for content, product and commercial strategy. If you want to explore what the shifts mean for your own service, portfolio or audience strategy, get in touch.