Before you quote a short form video market size in England, define what counts

What to take away

Why does the short form video market size in England have no single number?

Advertisers ask for one figure to put in a slide. No official body publishes a line item called short form video in England. The Office for National Statistics measures internet and social media use by people, not video revenue.

The number therefore depends on what you price. Media spend, platform revenue, creator income and audience size move differently. A total that adds them together tells you almost nothing.

Press coverage often blends those measures. A headline about UK video advertising spend is not a finding about England, because the four nations differ in population and platform mix.

Before quoting anything, write the definition down. "UK short form video advertising spend" is a different claim from "hours watched by adults in England".

Which formats count as short form video?

Format definitions matter. If your source counts in-feed video but excludes stories, your total will look smaller than a rival's. Length thresholds differ too, so a definition that stops at 60 seconds will not match one that runs longer.

IAB UK's overview of the new online ad portfolio sets out how the industry classifies online ad formats, including video. Use it to check whether a supplier's category matches yours.

Vertical video is the format most teams mean. Ask three questions of any dataset: does it include vertical placements, does it count audio-on viewing, and does it separate paid from organic reach?

If you cannot answer those, treat the figure as indicative only. The England market guide for 2027 explains how the format sits inside the wider UK picture.

How do you build an estimate from partial data?

Start with a population base. The ONS tables give the share of adults using the internet and social media by age band and household type: a denominator you can defend.

Then apply a platform figure from a named source, with its date. Guides such as the LinkedIn Ads Guide explain what their video placements include, which helps avoid double counting. Two sources that agree within a sensible margin give you more confidence than one precise number from a supplier.

Finally, state the assumption doing the most work. If you assume 40% of social video views in England are short form vertical, label that as your own illustrative figure. Check the period as well, since campaign spending clusters around seasonal peaks and a single quarter can mislead.

What demand signals should sit alongside the size figure?

Size alone says little about whether to invest. Pair it with demand: search interest, platform view counts and advertiser briefs show where attention is moving.

Demand signals in England covers the indicators worth tracking month by month, so you can sanity check any headline number you inherit. Search interest and view counts are cheap to collect and hard to argue with.

A large market with flat demand is a different proposition from a smaller one growing quickly. Budget decisions should follow the second pattern.

How should you present the figure to a client or board?

Separate measured data from modelled data on the slide itself. Readers forgive estimates, but not estimates dressed up as official statistics. Date every version you circulate so readers can see what changed since the last one.

Common questions

Is there an official short form video market size for England?

No. The ONS publishes internet and social media usage data, not video revenue, and no government body issues a short form video market figure for England alone.

Can I use UK figures for an England-only claim?

Only if you say so. UK totals include Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so an England-only claim needs a separate base or a stated assumption about England's share.

How often should the figure be refreshed?

At least annually, and sooner if a major platform changes its ad formats. A changed definition makes last year's number incomparable.