Telecoms, TV and Radio Trends

Ofcom has published a report providing an overview of developments within the UK's telecoms, radio and television industries. Among the highlights, the number of broadband connections has passed ten million, while total TV reach has declined two years running. Other research shows online radio listening growing fast in the US.

The Communications Market interim report shows that by December 2005 there were 9.792 million broadband connections in the UK, with an average weekly take-up of 70,000. Growth is extraordinary given that seven years ago there were no broadband subscribers.

Retail revenues from all telecoms services in the 12 months to 30 September 2005 were £37.2 billion, more than 6% higher than 12 months previously: within this however, mobile revenues grew by 16% to £13.6 billion while domestic and business fixed-line revenues fell 9% to £10.3 billion.

Digital platforms account for 10.5% of all radio listening over August/September 2005, up from 5.9% the previous year. Cumulative sales of DAB sets passed 2 million by the end of Q3 2005, and may have reached 2.7m with Christmas sales. Commercial radio's share of listening (537 million hours) was smaller than the BBC's (611 million).

Total television reach declined between December 2003 and December 2005, with the biggest fall among younger people - down 2.5% for 25-34 year-olds and 2.9% (2.2 in the last year alone) for 16-24 year-olds. Within this, the reach of multichannel TV grew to 60.1% in December 2005 and its audience share to 30.8%, while the reach of the terrestrial channels continued to fall with ITV a major faller (down 3.6% in multichannel homes( and BBC2 a rare gainer (up 1.6%).

The BBC channels had a 30.8% share in multichannel homes in December 2005, versus 22.6% for the ITV channels, 9.8% for all Sky channels, 8.6% for all Channel 4 channels, 4% for all UKTV channels and 24.3% for all other channels. By the end of September 2005, 66% of households (16.5 million) could access digital television.

Total television advertising revenues in Q2 and Q3 2005 declined by 1% compared to the same two quarters in 2004. Net advertising revenues were £789m in Q3 2005.

Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, and is online at www.ofcom.org.uk . Further details and definitions for the above results are available in the full report at www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/feb06_report/


Meanwhile in the USA a report from comScore and Arbitron shows that more than seven million different people, age 12 and older, tuned to the online radio networks during the average week in December, 2005. The service measures listening from Monday to Sunday, 6am to 12 midnight, and covers America Online's AOL (r) Radio Network; Yahoo! (r) Music; Microsoft's MSN Radio and WindowsMedia.com; Live365; and Clear Channel Online Music and Radio.

The ratings are based on a subset of approximately 200,000 U.S. participants within the comScore global consumer panel, with behaviour passively and continuously captured. The companies are online at www.arbitron.com and www.comscore.com/metrix

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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