Line graphs: broadcast TV and streamed video
You can write an overview of a line graph and support it with the figures that show each trend.
In the country on this graph, people spent an average of 1 hour a week watching streamed video in 2010, and 18 hours in 2025. Broadcast TV went the other way.
A line graph is about movement over time, so the report needs the main trends first and a few chosen figures after them. The band descriptors describe the opposite at band 5: there may be a tendency to focus on details (without referring to the bigger picture).
Warm-up
What matters most?
Here are the figures for one line on a graph. Which sentence would you put first in a report on it?
Read thisBroadcast TV, hours a week: 22 (2010), 21 (2013), 18 (2016), 14 (2019), 11 (2022), 10 (2025)
Which sentence should come first?
How it works
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The graph below shows the average number of hours a week that people in one country spent watching broadcast television and streamed video between 2010 and 2025.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The method
- 1Read the axes and the key
What is measured (average hours a week), over which years (2010 to 2025), and which line is which. All the years are in the past, so the report is mostly in the past simple.
- 2Follow each line from start to end
Is it going up or down overall? Where is its highest point? Does it speed up, slow down or level off?
- 3Find where the lines meet
The point where one line catches up with the other is usually a main feature, and it belongs in the overview.
- 4Write the overview
Two sentences with no figures: the direction of each line, and the moment one passes the other.
- 5Choose the figures
For each line: the start, the end, the peak and any point where the speed changes. Leave out years where nothing new happens.
Year by year, or the trend
Broadcast TV was 22 hours in 2010. It was 21 hours in 2013. It was 18 hours in 2016. It was 14 hours in 2019. It was 11 hours in 2022. It was 10 hours in 2025.
Broadcast TV fell from 22 hours a week in 2010 to 10 in 2025. The fall was slight at first, then much steeper between 2013 and 2022, before it levelled off.
Watch me do one
I start with the axes: average hours a week, 2010 to 2025, two lines. Every year on it is over, so I'll write in the past simple.
Broadcast TV starts at 22 and ends at 10, so it more than halved. Most of that fall comes between 2013 and 2022.
Streamed video starts at 1, climbs slowly, then fast, and peaks at 19 in 2022. It dips to 18 at the end.
The lines meet in 2019, at 14 hours each, and after that streaming is ahead. That meeting point goes in the overview.
So the overview has no figures: broadcast TV declined throughout the period, while streamed video grew rapidly and overtook it in the second half. The details then take one paragraph per line.
A model answer
The line graph shows how many hours a week, on average, people in one country spent watching broadcast television and streamed video between 2010 and 2025. Overall, time spent on broadcast TV declined throughout the period, while streamed video grew rapidly and overtook it in the second half of the period. By the end, people spent far more time streaming than watching broadcast TV. In 2010, people watched an average of 22 hours of broadcast TV a week. This figure fell only slightly over the next three years, to 21 hours, but then dropped steeply, reaching 11 hours in 2022. It levelled off at 10 hours in 2025, less than half its 2010 figure. Streamed video followed the opposite pattern. It accounted for just 1 hour of viewing a week in 2010 and rose slowly to 3 hours in 2013. After that, growth was much faster, and by 2019 the figure had risen to 14 hours, equal to broadcast TV. It peaked at 19 hours in 2022, before dipping slightly to 18 in 2025.
- TaskThe overview: the direction of both lines and the moment one passes the other, with no figures.
- VocabularyThe verb and adverb match the size of the change: 22 to 21 is a slight fall.
- VocabularyA different verb and adverb for a bigger, faster fall.
- TaskOne comparison sums up the whole line.
- CoherenceA short sentence moves the reader to the second line and links it to the first.
- VocabularyThe noun growth describes the speed of the change and saves repeating rose.
- GrammarBefore with an -ing verb adds the last movement to the same sentence.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
Practice with Elita6 questions
Five questions about this graph. The last task gives you new figures and asks for their overview.
An accurate overview
All three are written as overviews. Only one matches the graph. Which?
Which overview is accurate?
The top of the line
Complete the sentence with one verb that shows 19 hours was the highest point on the line.
Streamed video at 19 hours a week in 2022, before dipping slightly.
Write no more than 1 word.
Which figures?
You are writing the paragraph about streamed video. Which set of figures would you choose?
Which figures belong in the paragraph?
Does it match the graph?
Each sentence describes the graph above. One of them is inaccurate. Choose it.
Which sentence contains the error?
Two past forms
Write the past simple of each verb in brackets.
Broadcast TV (fall) throughout the period, while streaming (rise) until 2022.
Write no more than 1 word in each gap.
An overview of your own
This graph is described in words. Picture the two lines, then write the overview in two sentences without figures.
A line graph shows the percentage of homes in one country with a landline phone and with home broadband, from 2005 to 2025. Landline: 88% in 2005, 80% in 2010, 67% in 2015, 51% in 2020, 38% in 2025. Broadband: 35% in 2005, 58% in 2010, 76% in 2015, 87% in 2020, 91% in 2025. Write the overview.
0 / 25 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
Sent out by a TV or radio channel, at times the channel chooses. Broadcast TV shows the evening news at a fixed time.
Reach the same level as something that was ahead. Streaming caught up with broadcast TV in 2019.
Movement in the other direction. Landline ownership followed the opposite pattern to broadband.
Quickly and by a large amount, like a steep hill. Time spent on broadcast TV dropped steeply after 2013.
Fall a little, often for a short time. Streaming dipped slightly in the last three years.
Make up a particular amount or part of something. Streaming accounted for just 1 hour of viewing a week in 2010.
Before you go
Read the axes and the key first, and choose your tense from the dates.
Write an overview with no figures: the direction of each line and where one passes the other.
For each line, report the start, the end, the peak and any change of speed.
Check each claim against the graph: caught up with and overtook describe different moments.
Next: Unit 3 ends here. Unit 4 is about the environment, and it opens with the words for it and the passive.