Further detail: November 2025 TV market detail page | TV Market Update hub.
November 2025: final editorial review
- The Celebrity Traitors – BBC – 30.3m
- I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – ITV – 20.8m
- Strictly Come Dancing – BBC – 16.2m
- Celebrity Race Across the World – BBC – 14.7m
- The Great British Bake Off – Channel 4 – 14.3m
- Trigger Point – ITV – 12.4m
- Shetland – BBC – 12.1m
- The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked – BBC – 11.4m
- Kingdom – BBC – 11.3m
- Have I Got News for You – BBC – 11.2m
November was peak commercial pressure. The Celebrity Traitors remained the huge BBC talking point, but ITV’s I’m a Celebrity was the commercial monster: big, live-ish, shared, predictable and perfectly timed for Christmas retail and Black Friday demand. Channel 4’s Bake Off and ITV’s Trigger Point added more buyable quality.
Campaign activity was crowded: supermarkets, Christmas retail, Black Friday, tech, gaming, finance, delivery, charity and entertainment all wanted attention. The Budget, fiscal politics, storm and flood stories, and Black Friday news made the month feel noisy and high-stakes.
The buying read: November TV should not be bought casually. Premium spots need a fame job. Frequency should come from broader airtime, BVOD and portfolio planning, with search and retail media ready to harvest demand after TV has done the salience work.
November 2025 was a month for looking at TV as a buying market, not just a viewing habit. The useful question for advertisers was where commercial attention could still be bought with confidence, and where demand was likely to push pricing up.
Commercial programming and viewing
November was a high-pressure commercial month. ITV entertainment, Sky Sports, Channel 4 and Channel 5 factual, lifestyle and entertainment contexts all mattered because advertisers needed reach quickly. The challenge was not finding viewers; it was buying enough quality impacts without overpaying.
Advertiser and category movement
Black Friday, Christmas retail, supermarkets, tech, finance, delivery, gaming, toys, betting where compliant and entertainment brands made the market crowded. This is where TV is commercially useful: it creates trust and scale before search demand peaks.
Broadcaster, agency and platform news
Agency conversations focused on allocation. Retail media, paid social and search all demanded money, but TV still had a role in making brands more famous and more trusted before the click. Broadcaster BVOD also helped control frequency around short, intense bursts.
Cost of TV and buying conditions
November pricing was predictably tight. Premium peak could be expensive, and late buyers had less leverage. Smart plans used a base of efficient airtime, then selected premium positions carefully rather than treating every expensive spot as essential.
Media buying view
- Reserve premium November positions for messages that need fame.
- Use broader airtime and BVOD to avoid paying Q4 premiums everywhere.
- Coordinate TV with search and retail media so demand is captured after the broadcast burst.