The last year has seen the online industry take its position at the centre of all traditional media, tying itself firmly into the nation’s TV, radio and print operations.
The last 12 months have seen TV broadcasters dipping their toes into online delivery, while online radio listening has rocketed. Press owners also took to online with gusto in 2005, splashing out millions in an effort to reclaim lost ground and supplement their sliding ad revenues.
ITV and the BBC have both embraced the internet to deliver TV content, the BBC with its iMP software, currently completing its second trial phase (see BBC Extends On-Demand Access Trial), and ITV with a pilot broadband TV service aimed at viewers in Brighton and Hastings (see ITV Latest To Launch Web TV Trial).
BSkyB has also made inroads towards offering TV via broadband, acquiring internet service provider Easynet in order to develop its own on-demand system (see Sky Close To Completing EasyNet Deal), while 2005 saw Channel 4 develop broadband-based communities for the creation of documentary and comedy programmes, dubbed FourDocs and 4Laughs (see Channel 4 Sights Online As New Comedy Conduit).
Elsewhere, cable firms NTL and Telewest began independent development of on-demand products, before announcing their merger to provide a nation-wide network capable of delivering content at the push of a button (see Cable Giants Launch On-Demand TV And Movie Services).
The TV industry wasn’t the only sector of the media world to embrace on-demand technology in 2005, as the BBC reported record-breaking usage of its online radio player, offering instant access to the last seven days of radio broadcasts (see BBC Sees Online Radio Break All Records).
Commercial broadcasters also began to adopt on-demand technologies last year, with Virgin launching its own online radio player (see Virgin Launches Advanced Internet Radio Player), rolling out podcasts of several shows (see Virgin Radio To Launch Second Podcast Show) and debuting the UK’s first example of ‘podvertising’ (see Virgin Makes Podvertising First With Pete And Geoff).
Figures from Ofcom show internet radio listening increasing substantially towards the end of 2005, with 13.5% of people listening via their PCs, up 3.3% points from 10.2% in September 2004 (see Digital Radio Increases UK Penetration).
Elsewhere, new internet radio technologies made their debut in 2005, with Virgin the first broadcaster to offer 3G mobile customers access to its digital channels. The radio giant hailed the new service a success almost immediately, after almost 500,000 listening hours were clocked up within the first two days of operation (see Virgin Hails Success Of Mobile Internet Radio).
The press industry directed a large amount of capital towards online activities in 2005, with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp making a particular effort to catch up, following the firm’s previous and widely acknowledged neglect of the sector.
Amongst the publisher’s online acquisitions last year were those of UK property portal Propertyfinder.com, for £14.3 million (see News Corp Splashes Out £14 Million On Property Site), and online gaming firm IGN, securing access to around 28 million male internet users through sites covering video games, films, music, sports, cars and girls (see Online Purchase Gives Murdoch Male Audience).
Newspaper giant Trinity Mirror also splashed out on online purchases last year, securing SecsintheCity.com, for £3.3 million, giving the company control of the leading internet recruitment site for secretarial and administrative jobs (see Trinity Continues Online Recruitment Acquisitions). The publisher also snapped up the UK’s second largest online recruitment firm, Hotgroup, for £50.5 million in September (see Trinity Buys Online Recruitment Site).
