Exposure to tobacco, alcohol and ‘Junk food’ content in reality TV programmes broadcast in the UK between August 2019 - 2020

Background: Exposure to alcohol, tobacco, and foods high in fat sugar or salt (HFSS) content in media is a risk factor for smoking, alcohol use, and HFSS consumption in young people. We report an analysis of tobacco, alcohol, and HFSS content in a sample of reality TV programmes broadcast on TV and video-on-demand (VOD) services throughout a one-year period. Methods: We used 1-minute interval coding to quantify content in all episodes of 20 different reality TV programmes between August 2019 – August 2020 and estimated population exposure to a sample of these programmes using viewing data and UK population estimates. Results: We coded 13,244 intervals from 264 episodes. Tobacco content appeared in 227 intervals (2%) across 43 episodes (2%), alcohol in 5167 intervals (39%) across 258 episodes (98%), and HFSS in 1752 intervals (13%) across 234 episodes (88%). A sample of 15 series delivered approximately 157.4 million tobacco, 3.5 billion alcohol, and 1.9 billion HFSS gross impressions to the UK population, including 24 thousand, 12.6 million and 21.4 million, to children respectively. Conclusion: Tobacco, alcohol and HFSS content is common in reality TV programmes. These programmes deliver exposure to tobacco, alcohol, and HFSS imagery, representing a potential driver of tobacco use, alcohol use, and HFSS consumption in young people