Online TV viewing doubles in past year

The number of Britons viewing TV online has more than doubled in the last 12 months, according to Ofcom.

The regulator's annual UK Communications Market Report found the number of people watching TV programmes online grew from 8% to 17%, and nearly a third of internet users (32%) watched video clips and webcasts online, compared to 21% in 2006.

The number of UK internet users who watched YouTube hit 9m in April, nearly 50% more than a year ago, while the BBC iPlayer delivered more than 700,000 daily video streams in May 2008.

The number of households with digital video recorders grew 53% in 2007 to nearly 6m (23%) and the majority (88%) use them to fast-forward through ads.

The findings were in line with increased online ad spend, which, according to Ofcom, grew to £2.8bn in 2007, attracting more money than the combined ad spend on ITV1, Channel 4, Five and S4C.

Take-up of broadband through a landline grew from 52% of households to 58% in 12 months. This was mainly driven by consumers upgrading from dial-up to broadband.

More than one in ten mobile phone users have accessed the internet on their phone and 3G mobile connections increased by 4.7m (60%) in 2007 to reach 12.5m subscribers.

According to the Ofcom report, the average UK adult spent seven hours nine minutes a day using various communications services, six minutes more than in 2002. This includes radio listening, TV viewing, time spent online, texting or talking on the telephone.

Published by: Danielle Long

Published 14th August, 2008

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