Repeats. Repeats. Repeats.
UK Terrestrial TV at Christmas.
BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 should become Deja vu+.
Across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day the 5 main terrestrial, 'free-to-air' channels will show more than 75 repeats.
Extraordinarily BBC are repeating their two main Christmas specials from 2024 - the Gavin and Stacey Finale from last Christmas Day is being shown on Christmas Eve, and Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance most Fowl, which was also shown last Christmas Day will be repeated this Christmas Day.
The Snowman will be shown FOUR times across two days on Channel 4 and E4.
It is almost as if the old guard has given up in the fight for audiences with Sky, Netflix, Prime Video, Discovery+, Disney+ and Paramount+.
Yes, we still have the traditional Christmas Eve events such as Carols from King's and the Midnight church service, and the King on Christmas Day, but the lack of original and new content across BBC ONE, BBC TWO, ITV 1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 is clear. Each of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have their own accompanying streaming sites with a wide-array of content, but the main channels are playing straight into the hands of the big six subscription platforms.
Last Christmas, when my parents came up to Cupar for Christmas, we spent the vast majority of our down time watching content on Prime Video, Netflix and Sky, aside from Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, and a couple of episodes of Emmerdale. This Christmas I produced a TV and Streaming Guide for December 20 to January 1, and more than 90% of the chosen programmes are not on terrestrial, free-to-air channels.
BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generate a combined annual revenue of more than £10billion, and yet their offering over Christmas, and New Year, with a small number of exceptions, is absolutely terrible.
Ironically one of BBC's big festive offerings is a mini-series - The Titanic Sinks Tonight. That could be a the title to the documentary covering the demise of Terrestrial Television in the UK.
24 December 2025, by Matt Hooper.