Derry Girls most-watched TV programme in NI last year

Derry Girls was the most-watched TV programme in Northern Ireland last year, with the first episode of the final series being watched by nearly half a million viewers on Channel 4, a new report from Ofcom has shown.

The sitcom, which follows a group of teenagers navigating growing up in Northern Ireland in the context of the Troubles, averaged more than three million viewers in its third season and won a number of Baftas including best scripted comedy.

The popularity of Derry Girls made Northern Ireland the only region in the UK in which a programme from Channel 4 appeared in the top 10 most watched.

Northern Ireland was also the only region of the UK where The King’s Christmas Day message was in the top 10 list, as the sixth most-watched programme in 2022, with an average audience of 292,000.

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Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report shows a continuing demand for local content in Northern Ireland, with local radio stations accounting for more than half of total radio listening in the region.

Almost 92 per cent of the adult population – 1.4 million people – are tuning in to radio for an average of 19 hours and 54 mins each week, meaning more people listen to radio in Northern Ireland than in other parts of the UK.

The media regulator also revealed that people in Northern Ireland spent less time watching TV than in the previous year, with an average of two hours 44 minutes spent per day watching broadcast TV on a TV set in 2022, a 9.5 per cent decline compared with 2021.

In line with the general trend across the UK, older people in Northern Ireland watched more broadcast TV on a television set than younger viewers.

Analysis of how people in Northern Ireland consumed news content showed that no newspapers entered the top 10 news sources, but Facebook ranked as the fourth most-popular source of news. - PA