Broadcast revenues fall as UK bears witness to decade of digital dependency

Broadcast revenues fall as UK bears witness to decade of digital dependency
Joseph O'Halloran
| 02 August 2018

The connected technology genie is not only well and truly out of the bottle in the UK but now plays pervasive part in everyday life says research from Ofcom.

ofceom 2Aug2018In its Communications Market Report, the UK telecoms and broadcast regulator found that since the launch of the iPlayer and smartphones such as the iPhone in 2007, smartphone ownership has grown from 17% 2008 to its currently level of 78% . This penetration rises to 95% among 16-24 year-olds. The survey also showed that ownership of tablets (58% of UK households) and games consoles (44% of UK adults) has plateaued in the last three years while smart TVs were in 42% of households in 2017, up from 5% in 2012. One in five households has wearable technology smart watches, fitness trackers.

Mobile phones and TVs are the only communications devices with near universal reach in the UK, used in 96% and 95% of households respectively.

Ofcom calculated that at £13.6 billion, total broadcaster revenue had slipped 4% in 2017, driven by declining advertising revenue and proportion of the BBC Licence Fee attributed to TV. In 2017, broadcasters spent £7.5 billion on content in 2017, due to higher spend on sports rights and production. Nine tenths of people watched TV every week in 2017, for an average of 3 hours 23 minutes a day. This is nine minutes less than in 2016 and down across all age groups under the age of 65. Those aged over 55 accounted for more than half of all viewing in the UK. Worryingly, Ofcom noted that programmes attracting audiences greater than 8 million have halved in the past three years.

People in the UK now check their smartphones, on average, every 12 minutes of the waking day. Two-fifths of UK adults first look at their phone within five minutes of waking up, climbing to almost two-thirds of those aged under 35. Similarly, just over a third of adults check their phones five minutes before lights out, again rising to 60% of under-35s.

Nearly three-quarters of adults say their smartphone is their most important device for accessing the internet, 71% say they never turn off their phone, and 78% say they could not live without it. “Over the last decade, people’s lives have been transformed by the rise of the smartphone, together with better access to the internet and new services,” said Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence. “Whether it’s working flexibly, keeping up with current affairs or shopping online, we can do more on the move than ever before. But while people appreciate their smartphone as their constant companion, some are finding themselves feeling overloaded when online, or frustrated when they’re not.”

Yet the Communications Market Report,ommunications Market Report, survey worryingly revealed that the benefits of the last ten years of connectivity have not been distributed equally. Lower-income households and over-54s were found to be less likely to have smartphones, laptops and tablets, but are as likely to have a TV.