Britons are increasingly turning to connected devices, the Office of...
Britons are increasingly turning to connected devices, the Office of Communications said in its annual market report (http://xrl.us/bnhbg4) Wednesday. Smartphones and social networking are becoming more popular, although adults of all ages overwhelmingly say they prefer to communicate face-to-face with…
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friends and family, it said. Text messages are the most-used method for daily communications among adults and 16-24-year-olds, in contrast to people over 65, for whom landline calls are the most popular form of daily outreach, it said. Face-to-face is still the most-used and preferred form of communication with businesses, it said. Tablet ownership jumped dramatically in 2011, from 2 percent of U.K. homes in Q1 2011 to 11 percent in Q1 this year, it said. The most common reason for buying a tablet is entertainment, it said. And although one key reason for purchasing a tablet is its portability, 87 percent of owners said they use the device mostly at home, it said. More adults now own e-readers, Ofcom said. Again, portability is given as the main reason for buying one, but 67 percent say they use their devices at home, it said. Britons are also starting to buy smart TVs, it said. Five percent of households now have one, and most use it to catch up on programs they've missed, it said. The survey also found that while telecom industry revenue continues its slow decline, the TV and radio sectors saw marked increases, it said. Around 60 percent of homes now have access to super-fast broadband services, and broadband take-up continued to rise steadily to 76 percent of households in Q1 2012, it said. Total home Internet access edged up to 80 percent of households in that quarter, it said. Despite the rapid advances in the media communications market in the past decade, there are still marked differences between older and younger people in terms of take-up and use of various services, it said. Adults spent 4.3 hours per day watching TV last year, with those 55 and over watching more, and 25-34s tuning in a little bit less often, it said. Average radio listening time each week has dropped slightly over the past 10 years, it said. Internet advertising spend is larger than for any other category of advertising, it said. The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games “are likely to be a significant event in the U.K. media and communications landscape” this year, Ofcom said. Seventy-seven percent of adults said they're likely to follow the games on any medium, with about three quarters saying they'll watch on TV, Ofcom said. One in five adults said they'll watch online via computer, tablet or mobile phone, it said.