Netflix Overtakes ITV as the UK's Biggest Commercial Broadcaster by Revenue

Netflix pulled in £2.06 billion ($2.81 billion) in UK revenue for the full year 2025, overtaking ITV to become the country's largest commercial broadcaster by revenue for the first time, according to a Companies House filing reported by Deadline.

The figure represents an 11.3% jump from the £1.85 billion Netflix UK posted in 2024. The company attributed the growth to two things: a 7% rise in the average number of paying subscribers and higher average monthly revenue per member. In other words, more people are paying, and they are paying more.

ITV's media and entertainment division — which includes its traditional channels and the ITVX streaming service — brought in £1.9 billion in its latest full-year results, landing below Netflix's UK haul. ITV's parent company, ITV plc, posted a larger £4.12 billion when its production arm ITV Studios is folded in, but the broadcast and streaming operation Netflix surpassed is the one being sold to Sky.

Netflix's UK operation is not just growing revenue. Operating profit for the year ended 31 December 2025 came in at £44.9 million, up slightly from £43.2 million. Profit after tax rose 11.5% to £53.3 million. The company distributed £30 million in interim dividends on 21 July 2025 and increased the amount loaned to it by its US parent to nearly £400 million, with the maturity extended to 1 August 2028. Netflix Services UK Limited, the entity that houses these earnings, also became a subsidiary of Amsterdam-based Netflix International following a merger in May 2025.

The UK headcount tells its own story. Netflix employed an average of 342 staff in the UK in 2025, up from 263 a year earlier. The company launched in the UK in 2012 as part of its first push into Europe.

For context on the broader landscape, Channel 4 posted £1 billion in revenue and Paramount-owned Channel 5 brought in £318 million — both well below Netflix's UK total.

The revenue milestone lands alongside a shift in viewing habits. Ofcom's annual Media Nations report, published in late July 2026, found that 26% of UK viewers turn to Netflix first when deciding what to watch, narrowly ahead of the BBC on 25%, with ITV a distant third on 9%, according to Reuters.

Netflix's advertising business is expanding too. The ad-supported tier reaches more than 190 million monthly active viewers globally, the company said in November 2025, and global ad revenue hit approximately $1.5 billion in 2025 with a target of around $3 billion in 2026.

What makes the ITV overtake stand out is how quickly the gap closed. A streaming service that arrived in the UK in 2012 has, in thirteen years, grown its British business past a broadcaster whose roots go back to 1955. ITV's broadcast and streaming arm is now being sold to Sky, which will reshape the competitive picture further. Futuresource forecasts that streaming revenue will overtake pay TV in the UK by 2029, with SVOD (subscription video on demand) spending expected to grow at just over 1.2% annually between 2025 and 2029.

Netflix UK's full accounts for the period were filed at Companies House on 7 August 2025, a 29-page document registered under company number 09091899.