British web users continue to move away from TV and newspapers

November 30th, 2006 by Lloyd Gofton

Following the ‘Online video takes a bite out of TV‘ post on Monday, I was interested to read Rick Wray’s piece on Ofcom’s first major international survey of communications trends, featured on Guardian Unlimited today.

Ofcoms’ figures are similar to the ICM survey for the BBC, confirming; a third of British internet users watch less television once they have broadband, and 27% read fewer national newspapers.

The research also confirms we pay less for mobile phone, TV and internet services in the UK than our friends in Europe and the US.

Ofcom’s research goes beyond Europe, considering territories such as China, Japan and the US. China in particular offers some interesting stats, for example:

• Broadband penetration in China is running at just 12% but the overall market is massive. There are 43m Chinese households online, nearly twice the size of the entire UK market.
• China’s broadband users are more willing to embrace new technologies and services than people in Europe, the US and Japan

This shouldn’t be all doom and gloom for TV and newspapers, of course things are going to change, we’ve been discussing and predicting that for years. 

Both mediums are beginning to integrate with the internet and those that accepted the web early as a partner rather than a competitor, are already reaping the rewards.

The bottom line is all types of communications need to evolve to survive and ultimately there will be casualties, but if our consumption of, and access to, information is rising surely we are doing the right thing.

                              

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