(06-08-2016 16:10 )M-L-L Wrote: [ -> ]^ But this the Government's plan all along ...
Quite; I didn't mean to imply in any way that it was
my speculation.
Anyway, other elements of the process look likely to be held up. Following Brexit and the replacement of the Culture Secretary Ofcom assuming control over regulation of the BBC is now unlikely to be until April 2017. (See article below -
attached as from it's the ft, who broke the story, and can not be linked to.)
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As predicted by Sharon White in her recent interview for the Guardian, Ofcom have finally got around to appointing a new content director.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media...-1.2743656
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greens...t-director
Hugely significant, of course, is the guy's former time at BBC News. The regulator is obviously hoping that he will be seen as an 'oldboy', a familiar and friendly face known of and by his former colleagues still with the corporation.
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Meanwhile yet another annual Ofcom
survey, this time on internet and other media usage in the UK, warns that we are increasingly admitting to the downsides of being 'connected' throughout our waking hours. More and more people are trying 'digital detox' apparently (which, of course, you can read all about and sign up for online!
)
Most of the quoted material below is from Ofcom's digest (
http://ofcomnewsreleases.cmail19.com/t/V...8700E2614F ) of the 260 page tome and are, I think, the most relevant sections to this board:
• While "broadcast TV generated record revenues of £13.6bn last year [up from 13.2bn in 2014] – partly driven by pay-TV subscription income rising to £6.2bn," online TV revenue is growing rapidly too, up 23% in the last year to £976m.
Looking at the detail in the report itself for this section, we see that revenue figures for "premium-rate telephony services" get lumped in with other "TV shopping, sponsorship, other interactive services, programme sales and S4C’s grant from the DCMS." That figure, for what it's worth, has remained stable for the past five years at 0.7bn. Elsewhere the report indicates "a revenue increase of 8% across the teleshopping sector; the 2015 revenue of £157m was the sector’s highest level since 2012." With the number of auction-type channels that went bump last year this might seem surprising.
• "Average monthly household spending on communication services has decreased in real terms over the past five years – from £121.15 in 2010, to £118.90 in 2015, representing a monthly decrease of £2.25, or £27 per year."
• "Eighty-six per cent of adults now have home internet access via any device."
• "Smartphones are considered the most important device for internet access (by 36% of internet users), followed by laptops (29% of internet users)."
• "Tablets (up from 54% to 59%), smartphones (up from 66% to 71%), smart TVs (up from 20% to 27%) and smart watches (up from 3% to 5%) saw year-on-year increases in ownership between 2015 and 2016."
The survey also includes section on an average "digital day" - a breakdown of all such related activities. For example...
• Ofcom reckon that the average UK adult spends 63% of such viewing time watching
live TV but the figure is much lower for 16 to 24 yo's who prefer on demand, online clips and dvd/blu-rays. "On average, each person in the UK watched 3 hours and 36 minutes of broadcast TV per day in 2015 [including catch-up], four minutes less than in 2014. But underlying this were marked differences by age groups. Average daily viewing fell by 15 minutes a day among 16-24 year olds, the biggest annual drop for this group since 2010... Live TV viewing fell by five and a half minutes year on year, while recorded and catch-up viewing within a week of broadcast increased by 1.3 minutes."
It summarises that...
• "While a digital generational gap clearly exists, the report also shows that many older people are keen to keep pace with newer online and on-demand services.
The proportion of 55-64 years who had internet access increased from 82% in 2015 to 87% in 2016, while over half (51%) indicated they used social media and 42% on-demand services in an average week.
Smartphone ownership among those aged 55 and over also increased from 32% to 42% year on year, while one in five (20%) now subscribe to a 4G service – up from 11% in 2015.
Furthermore, the most significant annual growth in mobile data use was among the older age groups - from 39% in 2015 to 50% in 2016 among 55-64 year olds and from 16% to 21% among people aged 65 and over."
The survey goes on to breakdown some 'on demand viewing trends', e.g....
• "More than half of UK adults (59%) used a video-on-demand (VoD) service during 2015 – up from 57% in 2014. Although the growth of VoD services is slowing for some age groups, paid-for VoD services continued to grow in popularity, with Netflix a prominent driving force."
For a good media interpretation see:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2...etox-ofcom
.