For the first time in Sweden’s modern broadcast era, YouTube reaches a larger daily audience than scheduled (linear) television. Nordicom’s Media Barometer 2026 — fieldwork conducted across 2025–26 among roughly 6,000 randomly selected Swedes aged 9–85 — confirms the accelerating shift from appointment viewing to algorithmic and on‑demand consumption. At the same time, streaming television remains the dominant platform for moving‑image consumption.
Key headline figures (Media Barometer 2026)
– 95% of Swedes watch moving images in some form on a typical day.
– 68% use streaming TV services (SVT Play and Netflix are the largest).
– 52% watch YouTube.
– 46% watch scheduled (linear) TV — disproportionately older viewers.
– 84% use social media; 76% listen to radio; 64% listen to music; 60% read a daily newspaper.
What changed: older viewers meet YouTube
YouTube’s lead is not driven solely by youth. As Nordicom researcher Elisabeth Falk highlights, younger cohorts still dominate absolute YouTube time, but the platform’s fastest growth is among older demographics — an early inflection point where user behaviour, not just age, determines platform leadership. Convenience, broader content categories (news, niche hobbies, instructional video), and greater mobile adoption among older users have all helped.
Streaming TV’s continued dominance
Although YouTube overtook scheduled TV, streaming television (SVOD and AVOD combined) is still the largest single category. Public service streaming (SVT Play) and global SVOD platforms (notably Netflix) continue to command large audiences, especially for long‑form drama and live sports/event viewing.
Political communications in an algorithmic year
2026 is an election year in Sweden. The growing primacy of YouTube and social platforms poses two immediate questions for campaigns, regulators and advertisers:
– Visibility vs. paid advertising: Many publishers and some platforms are restricting paid political ads, so campaigns increasingly rely on organic reach, influencer partnerships and algorithmic amplification to reach voters.
– Asymmetric amplification: Nordicom’s related Power Barometer (2025) showed that some of the most followed YouTube accounts skew politically right. In a marketplace where paid political advertising is constrained, accounts with large subscriber bases can have outsized influence — a structural advantage that could shape information flows ahead of the vote.
Practical implications for media owners, advertisers and policymakers
1. For media companies and publishers
– Accelerate video-first strategies. Publishers that still treat video as secondary risk losing both audience and ad revenue. Repurpose written journalism into short explainers, clips for social, and longer shows for streaming platforms.
– Monetize beyond display ads. Memberships, newsletters, events and premium audio can offset print declines. Newspapers that focus on differentiation — local reporting, investigative work, lived expertise — maintain higher conversion rates to paid models.
– Invest in older-user UX. Simpler interfaces, clearer subscription pathways and targeted discovery for older cohorts will capture the continued growth among this group.
2. For advertisers and agencies
– Rebalance media plans. Linear TV still reaches older advertisers’ targets effectively, but efficiency gains are found in platform-native video, contextual targeting and connected-TV buys.
– Create platform-tailored creative. Short-form, vertical assets for YouTube Shorts and social; longer storytelling for streaming TV; and trusted host reads or native formats for podcasts and radio.
– Measure cross‑platform reach. Current measurement remains fragmented. Invest in triangulation methods and partner with providers experimenting with single-source measurement.
3. For policymakers and civic actors
– Monitor algorithmic influence. Greater reliance on recommendation systems for political content heightens the need for transparency, platform reporting and media literacy initiatives.
– Support local public-interest media. As commercial ad dollars shift, public funding and mechanisms to support high-quality local reporting will remain essential for democratic resilience.
Wider trends to watch
– Short-form video continues to cannibalize lower‑value linear viewing but complements long‑form streaming for flagship content.
– Podcasts and radio remain resilient: audio reach (radio 76%, music 64%) suggests strong opportunities for branded audio and local audio journalism.
– Newspapers are losing daily reach in both print and digital; however, outlets that combine digital subscription growth with events and data services are proving sustainable.
– Advertising revenue will increasingly follow attention — but measurement lags mean winners will be the organizations that can rapidly validate cross‑platform ROI.
Regional context: should Nordic media executives be worried?
The Swedish figures are a clear signal for the Nordics: expect similar dynamics in Norway, Denmark and Finland, albeit with variations in public service market share and platform regulation. Nordic markets tend to have high public-service penetration and digital literacy, which can mitigate some negative effects, but the competitive pressure on ad‑funded journalism is pan‑regional.
Action checklist for Nordic business leaders (short)
– Audit your content supply chain for video readiness.
– Reassess ad budgets across linear, streaming and social with a 12–24-month horizon.
– Prioritise data and measurement partnerships.
– Increase investment in local journalism and trusted formats to retain paying audiences.
Methodological note
These findings come from Nordicom’s Media Barometer 2026 conducted in collaboration with Bonnier News, Göteborgs‑Posten, the Swedish Media Authority, Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Television. The dataset is representative of ages 9–85, N ≈ 6,000.
Next steps and how to stay engaged
Our next deep dive will map how advertising revenue is shifting across linear TV, streaming AVOD/SVOD, and platform video — and what that means for publisher profitability and investor returns. We’ll include interviews with streaming executives, ad agencies and public broadcasters across the Nordics.
We want your input: what would you like us to investigate — platform monetisation, political advertising rules, local news funding, or measurement innovations? Contact the Nordic Business Journal newsroom at editorial@nordicbusinessjournal.com or connect via LinkedIn (Nordic Business Journal). Subscribe to our weekly briefing to receive the upcoming analysis and invitations to our editorial roundtable on media monetisation in late 2026.