Total retail revenue in the UK communications sector reached £50 billion in 2005, a 5% increase compared to 2004, according to new figures revealed by Ofcom in its new Communications Market report.
The biggest annual rise, of £2 billion, came from the telecoms sector, while television revenue grew by £500 million. Total radio funding (BBC spend plus commercial revenue) remained broadly flat year-on-year.
Average household spend on communications rose slightly in 2005, by 25p (less than 1%) to £87.67 per month, while the largest single component was mobile communications at £30.50 per month (35% of total spend).
However, Ofcom says that for the first time in five years, as a proportion of total household expenditure, average UK household spend on communications services fell slightly, from 4.63% in 2004 to 4.60% in 2005. The decrease is attributed mainly to falling prices, particularly in fixed line telecoms.
The report also reveals that on average in 2005, mobile subscribers made more calls and sent more texts than they did in 2001, while internet users spent almost 20 minutes longer online per week and TV viewers watched for 11 minutes longer. However, over the same period, radio listening fell by 24 minutes and fixed line calling remained flat.
Text messages have been reaching record figures in the past few months, with the latest figures, for June, showing an average of 112 messages sent per day throughout the month (see Record Text Message Figures For June).
Ofcom also reports a significant difference in communications usage patterns between young adults and the general population, with 16-24 year olds spending on average 21 minutes more time online per week and sending 42 more text messages, but spending over seven hours less time watching television.
Forrester Research recently released a study which said that people aged 18-24 50% more likely than GenXers to send instant messages, twice as likely to read blogs, and three times as likely to use social networking sites such as Bebo or MySpace (see 18-24 Year Olds Spend Longer Online).
In telecommunications, 3G mobile services are now available to over 90% of the population in 2005, while the proportion of unbundled exchanges is up ten percentage points on 2004.
Take-up of digital services increased throughout 2005 and, by March 2006, 18.3 million UK homes took digital TV services, 11 million homes and small businesses had broadband connections, and there were around five million 3G subscribers.
Recent research from Point Topic said that UK broadband growth has slowed to 6.6%, with the market suffering its worst Q2 since 2004, (see UK Broadband Growth Slows To 6.6%).
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