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The grand final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Liverpool, UK, on May 13. Attracting a Super Bowl-sized audience, tourists, and viewing parties, the competition’s global reach will provide marketers and retailers with a notable opportunity to drive brand awareness and sales.

Total media time is flattening out in the UK after the artificial bump brought about by the pandemic. Video consumption, though, via multiple platforms, is one area where marketers can count on continued consumer engagement.

UK consumers have a voracious appetite for digital video content, but the cost-of-living crisis is boosting ad-supported options, particularly broadcaster video-on-demand services. Netflix’s pivot to an ad tier, meanwhile, may have legs.

Regulatory changes: The pace of regulatory probes in the EU, UK, and US targeting Big Tech’s way of business has sped up considerably in the last year or so, prompting tech companies to make concessions and disclose more info about their markets.

Historically, the UK was home to Western Europe’s largest customer base for subscription OTT. But we expect Germany to surpass the UK in user numbers in 2022, chiefly because Germany’s larger total population has begun to outweigh the higher OTT penetration in the UK.

TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest are popular shopping destinations, too, with TikTok being the top social shopping platform in the UK. While China leads in social commerce adoption, other markets are catching up fast. "It's interesting to see how social media is evolving from being a discovery channel to a full-fledged commerce platform," said Perkins. Price matters most, but trust is important, too.

Our take: Regulators and lawmakers now have a stronger case to probe TikTok’s compliance posture—especially as similar investigations unfold in the US, the UK, and Australia. Persistent privacy problems could accelerate urgency for creators, users, and advertisers to seek alternatives or at least diversify to other platforms, like Instagram or YouTube.

GenAI and social are set to heavily influence the UK commerce and advertising landscape in 2025, while thrifty consumer behaviors persist and video viewing shifts to mostly digital.