Silver surfers spend an average of 42 hours online every month, more than any other age group, according to Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report 2007, published today.
The report also says that the over 55s was the only age group to increase its average radio listening between 2002 and 2007 (up 5.5%).
Recent research from the European Interactive Advertising Association said that broadband adoption amongst European silver surfers (55 years and over) is growing at a faster rate than the average European internet user (26% year on year growth compared to 14%) (see Silver Surfers Catching Up With Youth Online).
Among 25-34 year olds, women spend more time using the internet than men. In this age group, 2.18 million young women users account for 55% of total time spent online. By comparison, just 1.83 million 25-34 year old men in the UK use the internet.
The report also shows that average daily internet use in 2006 (36 minutes) was up 158% on 2002 and time spent on the mobile phone (almost four minutes per day) was up 58%. Time spent watching TV was down 4% at 3 hours and 36 minutes, listening to radio was down 2% at two hours and 50 minutes and time spent on a fixed line phone was down 8% at seven minutes.
By the end of 2006 there were more than double the number of mobile connections (69.7 million) than landline connections (33.6 million).
Some 41% of mobile phone users regularly use their phone as a digital camera, 13% use it for internet access, 10% listen to FM radio broadcasts, and 21% use it as a mini games console. And in 2006 mobile users in the UK sent 20% more texts than the previous year with an average of 12 text messages per mobile per week.
Digital television – in 80.5% per cent of UK homes by April 2007 – is changing what, when and how we watch, says Ofcom. One of the new services being used by viewers in the 11.5 million subscription television households is high-definition (HD) television. The report finds that, in the 450,000 homes that have it, 33% of viewing time is spent watching in HD and 43% of those surveyed said that they watch more television – especially premium content such as films and sport – as a result of having HD.
By April 2007, 15% of respondents said they had a digital video recorder (DVR), almost double the number at the end of 2006.
Ofcom added that online advertising spending continues to surge, up 47% during 2006 and just breaking the £2 bilion mark. Internet advertising spend is now equivalent to almost half (44%) that spent on all TV advertising, which in 2006 fell by 2.2% on the previous year to £3.5 billion.
OPera Media recently forecast that UK total advertising spend will increase by 3.3% this year, with television, press and radio markets continuing to lose share of advertising spend (see UK Adspend To Increase By 3.3% In 2007).
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