What will you be watching on TV this Christmas Day?

TV is as big a part of the UK Christmas experience as turkey and presents. Who can forget Den giving Angie divorce papers on Eastenders in 1986, Del and Rodney finally hitting the jackpot in 1996 or the Queen’s ‘annus horribilus’ in 1992?

Actually, many of us could forget the Queen’s Speech according to new research commissioned by ANT into the ultimate Christmas Day TV. Her majesty’s words of wisdom limped into the top 10 at number nine, and the charts were dominated by blockbuster films and comedy programmes like Only Fools and Horses. Interestingly, in the 18-24 age category the ultimate Christmas TV program was The Simpsons, which made only number eight in the overall list.

But audiences have been declining for Christmas Day TV for years now, so is TV’s importance to the big day also in decline? I’d say not – the difference is that there is much more choice now, in terms of volume of channels available and ways to watch the content, such as IPTV. Viewers are no longer dictated to by the schedules, and with content freely available for download we are genuinely not far from away from having our own personal Christmas Day TV schedules.