The regulator said people watching TV online on-demand leapt from 8% to 17% in twelve months.
Ofcom added that while people were watching TV for around the same number of minutes, they were increasingly taking control of their TV viewing.
Thirty-two percent of internet users watched video clips and webcasts in 2007, compared with 21% in 2006. The number of UK internet users who watched YouTube reached nine million in April this year – nearly 50% more than a year ago.
Meanwhile, the number of people listening to radio via the internet increased to 14.5 million by May 2008, up 21% from 12 million in November 2007.
At the end of 2007, nearly six million households (23%) had a digital video recorder, up by 53% in a year. But the vast majority of people (88%) said that, when they used their DVRs, they skipped through ads.
Nearly nine out of 10 households now has a digital television, with nearly 80% of all TV sets sold in the UK High-Definition (HD) ready, up from 50 per cent last year.
More than half (57%) of viewing in homes with digital television was of the five main public service broadcaster channels, down slightly from 58 per cent in 2006. But viewing share of the PSBs’ digital channels grew from 11 per cent to nearly 14 per cent of all viewing.
Ofcom’s report shows that in 2007 UK users spent an average of seven hours and nine minutes a day watching television, surfing the net, using mobiles, talking on a landline phone and listening to the radio.
When asked which media activity would be missed the most, more than half of said it would be watching TV.
Despite growth in use and take-up, the overall average household spend on communications services was £93.63 a month in 2007, a fall of £1.53 (1.6 per cent) on the average spend in 2006.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
