Report: UK Communicating More Than Ever
Posted August 15, 2008 
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The fifth annual report on the state of communication in the UK by regulator Ofcom highlights how we are all talking/emailing/IM'ing and texting more than ever and, it's costing less too. The whopping 365-page report shows that in 2007, we spent an average of 7 hours and 9 minutes using communication services - from phones to TVs and radios. Oddly though, this is only up 6 minutes on 2002 but, the greatest increases were seen in mobile and Internet. Between 2002 and 2007 the time spent talking and texting on our mobiles doubled, up from 5 minutes to 10 minutes each day. Time spent on PCs and lap-tops quadrupled in the same period, from 6 minutes to 24 minutes per person every day. Ofcom found that we are also getting more for our pound - albeit marginally - with the average household spend on comms services at £93.63 a month in 2007, a fall of £1.53 on 2006. The reduction is attributed to discounts from bundles, lower prices for broadband and our newfound skills at bargain hunting and swapping from crap suppliers to better ones. Peter Phillips, Partner, Strategy and Market Development, said: "We are spending more and more time with our communications devices but spending less on them. Our devotion to watching, listening and staying in touch wherever and whenever we want shows no sign of diminishing and, with healthy competition, overall prices offer increasing value for money. That is what consumers demand and what Ofcom helps deliver." My favourite stat is that if every set-top box in the UK is left on standby for one year [more than half of us do] this would use the same amount of power needed to make nearly 80 billion cups of tea. Scroll down to see a breakdown of the main findings in key services markets.-Martin Lynch Converged communications * We are increasingly listening to the radio online. The number of people listening to radio via the internet has increased to 14.5 million by May 2008, up 21 per cent from 12.0 million in November 2007. * Online advertising spend is up by almost 40 per cent year-on-year reaching £2.8 billion in 2007. For the first time, more money was spent on internet advertising than the combined advertising spending on ITV1, Channel 4, S4C and five (£2.4 billion). Paid-for search advertising still dominates the internet market up 39 per cent during 2007 at £1.6 billion. Classified advertising saw the largest increase in 2007 - up 54 per cent to £600 million while display advertising grew by 29 per cent in 2007 accounting for a further £600 million of advertising spend. * The vast majority of people (88 per cent) said that, when they use their DVRs, they use them to fast forward through advertisements. * The number of people using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) fell from 20 per cent in 2006 to 14 per cent in the first quarter of 2008. Television and Radio * By July 2008, nearly 9 out of 10 households had digital television (87.2) compared to 7 out of 10 twelve months ago. * By March of this year, nearly 80 per cent of all TV sets sold in the UK were High-Definition (HD) ready, up from 50 per cent in twelve months. The number of HD subscriptions more than doubled to reach 829,000 over the same period. * People are favouring larger television screens - a fifth of all TV sales were for 33 inch screens and larger. * When asked which media activity would be missed the most, more than half of us (52 per cent) said it would be watching TV, up from 44 per cent in 2005. The next highest 'most-missed' activity would be using a mobile phone at 13 per cent, up from 10 per cent in 2005. Conversely, the 16-19 age group put their mobiles ahead of the television. Some 42 per cent of these teenagers said they would miss their mobile most. For them, watching TV came next at 20 per cent. * Over half (57 per cent) of viewing in homes with digital television was of the five main Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) channels, down slightly from 58 per cent in 2006. * That was more than offset by the viewing share of the PSBs' other channels (such as ITV2, BBC Three and E4) which grew from 11 per cent to nearly 14 per cent of all viewing. * By March 2008, 7 million households (27 per cent) had a DAB radio set, up from 17 per cent on last year. Telecoms * By the end of 2007, there were almost 74 million mobile connections serving a population of 60 million in the UK. This was an increase of 3.7 million connections since the end of 2006. The total number of mobile connections increased by 48 per cent in the five years from 2002. * Seven out of ten people with a mobile phone and a landline use their mobile to make calls, even when they are at home. One in ten people with a landline at home said that they never use it to make calls. * We are a nation of texters. In the UK, nearly 60 billion text messages were sent in 2007 - an increase of 36 per cent since 2006 and up by 234 per cent since 2002 when we sent 17 billion texts. The average mobile phone user sent 67 texts per month from each mobile compared to 53 texts per month in 2006. * The majority of children have access to the internet and most have a mobile phone but they use them in different ways. Boys aged 8-11are twice as likely to use the internet every day than girls of the same age (45 per cent compared to 22 per cent). Meanwhile girls aged 12 -15 are more likely to use a mobile phone than boys of the same age (74 per cent compared to 65 per cent). * Instant messaging is more popular than email amongst children with 62 per cent of 12-15 year old sending an instant message, compared with 43 per cent of them sending an email. Adults prefer to email - 80 per cent of adults sent an email compared to 34 per cent who used instant messaging. news technology life
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