'Networked generation' changes media habits Philip Aldrick | The Telegraph | August 10, 2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/08/10/uofcom10.xml A new "networked generation" is replacing television, radio and newspapers with the internet in what Britain's communications watchdog this morning declared to be a "radical shift in media consumption". Ofcom said in its 2005 market report that the trend has acclerated in the past year as broadband was piped into 11.1m households. Between 2004 and 2005, the number of connections increased 63pc and the price of broadband fell 60pc from £41 a month to just £16 a month. The internet's broadening influence is particularly marked in the young. "Television is of declining interest to many 16-24 year olds", who watch an hour less per day than the average TV viewer, the report said. They also listen to the radio for 15 minutes less a day than the wider population. Instead, "the internet plays a central role in daily life". More than 70pc of 16-24 year old internet users use social networking websites, compared with 41pc of all UK internet users, and 37pc of 18-24 year olds have contributed to a blog or website message board, more than double the national average. In addition, 27pc of respodents to the Ofcom survey said they read newspapers less as a consequence of their online usage. Advertisers are increasingly tapping into the web, diverting "significant revenues away from other media". Total online advertising revenues have increased almost eight-fold in real terms between 2001 and 2005, from £170m to £1.3bn a year. Online advertising revenue is now almost three times greater than that of radio and over one-third that of television, which was £3.8bn in 2005. Ofcom chief operating officer Ed Richards said: "The sector is being transformed by greater competition, falling prices and the erosion of traditional revenues and audiences. A new generation of consumers is emerging for whom online is the lead medium and convergence is instinctive." Mobile phones are also playing an increasingly important role in everyday lives, the report claimed. For the first time, the proportion of UK households relying solely on mobile phones is the same as the proportion who only use landline phones, at 10pc. As many now have a mobile phone as have a landline. Mobile phone usage increased in the period and now accounts for 31pc of all call minutes, up from 28pc in 2004 and 20pc in 2001. The number of households using their broadband connections to make low-cost or free Voice over Internet phone calls had risen to 1.8m by the end of 2005. --------------------------------- Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
