By Julia Bicknall & Ruth Peacock
Latest figures for “religion and ethics” TV and audiovisual output aired during 2025 by public service broadcasters, show an overall marginal increase of three hours on 2024, but the figure is much lower than the highpoint in 2013.
In that year, there were 254 hours of programming about religion including worship. In 2025, the figure was 171 hours (Diagram 1, below) – a drop of 33 per cent, mainly due to Channel 4 and Channel 5 withdrawing. In 2025, ITV and Channel 4 recorded one hour each, the rest came from the BBC.
Daisy Scalchi, BBC Head of Religion and Ethics, TV, said: “The BBC’s commitment to religion and ethics content is demonstrably strong. Audience habits have changed dramatically over the past 15 years, and we need to meet audiences where they are today – this includes programming in both peak and daytime TV but also programming that can gain a strong audience over time, and at their convenience, as viewers come to our content on iPlayer and other BBC platforms.
“The BBC provides almost 99 per cent of the UK’s broadcast religion programming across a wide variety of content, featuring documentaries, factual entertainment, worship, events and live debate, as well as titles in Children’s, Nations, BBC Bitesize and Education and a dedicated Religion Editor in News.
“Nor is religious representation limited solely to religion-specific programmes, as there are religious characters and storylines across entertainment and drama. There is no other UK media organisation consistently reflecting faith and belief across such a breadth of content and formats”
Ofcom’s findings are shown in a series of graphs on its website here. They show details of hours broadcast, category of programme, and time of day, divided into all day, daytime and peak. Diagram One, below, shows total hours of religion programming.
Original (first run) content in peak time 18.00-22.30
In 2011-13, (Diagram 2), peak-time TV viewers could see about 30 hours a year of original UK content featuring “Religious faith and inspiration” and 20 hours a year about “Religious life experience”, featuring moral, ethical and spiritual issues.
In 2025, these two last categories of output were combined. In peak-time, viewers got six hours in the whole year of first-run original content., and three hours of religious services/worship original content.
All-day and peak-time data
The total of daytime hours, including repeats, was marginally increased from 113 to 116 hours, the vast majority of it on BBC1 (graph not shown here).
The total of peak-time (6pm to 10.30pm) religion and ethics output was up by 20 per cent from 2024 — rising from 20 to 24 hours, but down from 2011 when there were 67 hours (Diagram 3).
One hour was of this in 2025 was on BBC1 (the same as 2024), 15 hours were on BBC2 and eight hours were in “BBC Portfolio”. There was nothing on ITV, C4 or C5.
Original (first-run) content in peak hours
When it came to first-run content in peak hours (Diagram 4), there was an extra hour on BBC2, but the same number of hours as 2024 on BBC1.
However, first-run content in daytime hours (graph not shown) saw a slight increase from 71 hours to 75 hours on BBC1, presumably Songs of Praise. Original content for both daytime and peak hours has hugely declined from 2011-13, when there were about 50 hours of it — including on ITV and Channel 4 — in peak hours alone.
BBC Comment
“Religion and Ethics titles have not declined in the way previously reported. BBC’s output was up to 169 hours (from 167 last year), making up 98.8 per cent of all PSB religious programming in the year. (One hour each for ITV and Channel 4 and 5). This is a 9 per cent decrease since 2010 and 4 per cent during the Charter period. Although to note that on BBC One (our biggest, most prominent channel) we see a 10 per cent increase during the Charter period. This is significantly less than the 30 per cent cuts the BBC has faced over the past decade. (please note – Ofcom calculates over a calendar year).
“For first-run hours: BBC’s output was up to 88 hours (from 87 last year); making up 98.9 per cent of all first-run PSB religious programming in the year. (One hour for ITV). This is a 29 per cent decrease since 2010 and 18 per cent during the Charter period. Although to note that on BBC One (our biggest, most prominent channel) we see only a 10 per cent decrease during the Charter period.
“When referring to peak viewing habits from 2011-2013; viewing habits have unarguably changed since this period. We see significant audiences coming to Religion programming across the schedule, including daytime, peak and on iPlayer. In fact, using our own internal categorisation of religious content we have seen a near-doubling of audiences to religious content on iPlayer.
“As well as that, the metrics do not capture representation of religion across other BBC output such as in the Nations or in drama, comedy and entertainment, where titles such as Virdee, Donkey, Juice, Eastenders, Traitors and Race Across the World have all featured people and storylines with faith. The metrics also do not measure social campaigns which accompany many titles, ensuring viewers know about the programming, such as Harry Clark Goes To Rome, which saw 1.2 million people engage on Instagram alone, and Songs of Praise which has had over 15.5 million views across its socials to date.
“Our annual commitments are regularly exceeded and this year we have provided 175 hours of broadcast television content (against 140 hours promised), 92 hours of first-run programmes (against 70 hours promised) and there are currently 288 hours of religion content available on iPlayer (against 240 hours promised). BBC iPlayer’s Faith and Hope rail is a permanent home for many hours of our output. (Our annual plan hours are calculated on a financial year).
“In radio, we have provided 550 hours (with 485 promised) with many titles available on BBC Sounds including Moral Maze and Beyond Belief on Radio 4; Good Morning Sunday and Pause for Thought on Radio 2; Choral Evensong on Radio 3; and coverage of key South Asian religious festivals such as Diwali and Ramadan on Asian Network.”
