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Brits turn off TV & radio and put down the paper, turn to broadband
...And now for something completely different...
Well, actually, no. The Brits are rapidly making the switch to broadband Internet usage, just like the U.S. and Canada. And it's impacting traditional media usage there, too. Broadband prices keeping dropping, surging more and more web surfing and viral video watching.
As reported Thursday in the British newspaper The Guardian:A third of internet users in Great Britain watch less television once they have broadband, while 27% read fewer national newspapers and almost a fifth switch off their radios, according to new research from the telecoms regulator Ofcom. The picture is similar across France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, highlighting the threat posed by the web to traditional media.
Hmmm, I wonder...will Brits read this story online before they see it in print?
* More than a third of British internet users have watched TV, movies or film trailers over broadband.
* Across all age groups, 34% of British broadband users have looked at user-generated content while 38% have watched the news online.
* British youth are the most web-savvy in the country - of those aged 18 to 24 with broadband, 77% have downloaded a music video...and 60% have watched TV over the web.
British web users turn away from TV and national newspapers once they have broadband but although 17% say they listen to less traditional radio, 43% listen to radio on the web at least once a month, similar to the trend on the continent.
Only 19% of British web users make phone calls over the internet at least once a month compared with 30% in France and 37% of users in Germany. Brits are also more reticent about using websites to meet, chat and make friends.
Despite the turn away from old media such as the BBC, the report shows 64% of British consumers believe public service broadcasting is "definitely necessary".
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, November 29, 2006,
