Currently 19% of UK households consume online video on a regular basis, up 8% from August 2007, according to new research.
The Deloitte Digital Index forecasts that in five years’ time this figure could realistically grow to more than 50%.
The research provides detailed commentary on 12 key metrics, including mobile TV, MP3 players, online video, digital video recorders, DVD players, DAB recorder, digital TV, broadband, VoIP and mobile internet.
Deloitte estimates that less than 1% of the UK population currently consumes mobile television and expects this to remain much the same for the rest of the year.
With the current economic climate expected to lead to consumers cutting back on discretionary spending, 2008 is unlikely to be the year mobile TV takes off.
In the longer term, Deloitte continues to take the view that a concerted industry-wide effort is a prerequisite to a significant uptake in demand for mobile TV. But with the growing success of online video providing an alternative opportunity for catching up with missed viewing (one of the potential USPs of mobile TV) that window of opportunity is closing.
At the start of the year, ABI Research forecast that mobile TV subscriber numbers would reach 462 million over the next five years (see Mobile TV Subscribers To Number 462m By 2012).
Jolyon Barker, head of technology, media & telecoms at Deloitte, said: “The Deloitte Digital Index looks at the key metrics for tracking the consumer take up of digital products and services and analyses the disruptive impact this will have on the TMT sector. This provides an opportunity to benchmark how fast an organisation’s ‘journey’ to digital is happening and the drivers and barriers determining changes in consumer attitudes and activities.
“While digitisation has already enabled mass market change, from the adoption of e-mails and mobile phones to the growth of e-commerce, digitisation’s full impact has yet to be felt. Companies using digital products and services as a channel to market should understand how and why their addressable market is growing. Entering a market too early could be as costly as entering too late.”
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