Internet Audience: UK

UK Internet Audience
• 70% (18.31 million) of UK homes have internet access.
• 96% of 16-24 year olds have used the internet in the last three months.
•. The demographic profile of the UK online population is changing as more “silver surfers” become IT literate.
• The lower social grades continue to grow at a much faster rate than their more affluent counterparts with a YOY increase of 12.4%, according to Kantar Media.
• Broadband accounts for nineteen out of twenty internet connections in the UK with a household penetration of 63%
Highlights
UK Internet Audience
Internet Usage
According to the latest figures released by the Office of National Statistics, 18.31 million households across the UK now have internet access. This represents 70% of all households, with an increase of 1.85 million since 2008. These trends are shown in Table 1 and Figure 1.
46.6 million adults (76% of the UK adult population) accessed the internet in the three months prior to the ONS survey being released, with male usage continuing to be higher. 80% of men and 72% of females in the UK had been online in this period.
Findings from the ONS survey show that educated people are much more likely to have access with 93% of adults under 70, who had a degree or equivalent, online.
Kantar Media’s Internet Report for Q3 2009 claims 34.8 million people were using the internet during this period, an increase of 6.5% on the same period the previous year. The Kantar report outlines the rise of users in lower social grades. DE’s continue to grow at a much faster rate than their more affluent counterparts with a year on year increase of 12.4% compared to the AB’s 3.1%.
Age Breakdown
16-24 year olds use the internet most, with 86% using it every day or almost every day, according to ONS. 96% of 16-24 year olds had been online within the three months before the survey. For the first time the majority of adults aged 65 plus who do use the internet, did so every day or almost every day (52%). However, their age group remained the least active for internet use, with 64% of them having never used it; see Table 2.
UK

UK Internet Audience
Email proved to be the most popular activity for all age groups. While the youngest age group was often the most likely to be involved in internet activities, they were the least likely to use the internet for services related to travel and accommodation, and seeking health related information.
The oldest and smallest group accessing the internet are also growing at the fastest rate. According to Kantar Media, in Q3 2009 the 65+ age category had the smallest amount of people online at 3.14 million, but grew faster than any other age bracket as the internet becomes more accessible to people not necessarily familiar with technology. This can be seen in Table 3. Since the same periods two years ago people over the age of 65 have made their online presence felt with an impressive increase of 46.7%.
The group with the largest number of users, the 35-44’s at 7.67 million people, had a YOY increase of 1.9%. There has been a bigger change with the youngest groups – the 15-24 and 25-34’s – with an increase of 6.6% each.
Research from The Nielsen Company claimed that from September 08- September 09, the share of the UK population made up by under 25 year olds fell by only -4.5%. This age group seems to be nearing complete penetration; see Figure 2.

UK Internet Audience
It seems during these two time periods the biggest rise was within the older age groups, slowly eating into the overall share of the younger audience.
Entertainment sites like Disney Online and Zynga had the youngest average age within the UK online audience at 3333.4; see Table 4. The brand with oldest average online audience is Friends Reunited, with an average online age of 49.5; see Table 5.
In January 2009 research from comScore showed that the total UK online video viewing audience has grown 10% YOY to 29.6 million unique viewers age 15 and older. Google Sites once again ranked as the top online video property in the UK, with 23.6 million viewers (up 14%), driven by the popularity of YouTube.com, which accounted for 99% of all videos viewed on the property. BBC Sites ranked second with 6.8 million viewers, followed by Microsoft Sites (4.3 million viewers), Facebook.com (3.6 million viewers), and Yahoo! Sites (3 million viewers); see Table 6.
While older people are adapting to the digital world, it is the younger generation that feel most confident. A survey of young people has found that three-quarters of them feel they “couldn’t live” without the internet. The report, which was unveiled by the online charity YouthNet at the Houses of Parliament in October 2009, surveyed a group of 16 to 24 year olds of which 75% said they couldn’t live without the web. Despite recent high-profile cases of internet security breaches, such as phishing email scams, the majority of the group (76%) also think the internet is safe “as long as you know what you’re doing”.
The survey, funded by the Nominet Trust, was set up to look at how the web influences the well-being of young people who are seen as “digital natives” – as they have grown up with computers and mobile

UK Internet Audience
technology. Professor Michael Hulme, author of the report, said: “For young people the internet is part of the fabric of their world and does not exist in isolation from the physical world.”
More people in the 15-24 year old age group are visiting social networking sites than they were in 2008, according to research realeased by comScore in August. It said that while the average 15-24 year old is spending less time overall on social networking sites, it appears to be due to youngsters spending less time around secondary sites.
In June, 6.8 million 15-24 year olds visited a social networking site, up 14% year on year. However, although the total audience is up, the time spent on these sites has fallen 9% over the same period.
Mike Read, SVP and managing director, comScore Europe, said: “Recent reports have suggested that 15-24 year olds in the UK are moving away from social networking sites because they’re no longer cool as older users have encroached on their virtual space. comScore research indicates that is simply not the case.
“In fact, more 15-24 year olds are using social networking sites than a year ago, so there isn’t any particular aversion to the activity. What does appear to be happening is that younger users are beginning to consolidate around Facebook and are spending less time on competing sites.”
The research also shows that Facebook has a substantially older user profile than Bebo and MySpace; 77% of Facebook visitors are age 25 or older, compared to 65% of Bebo visitors and 69% of MySpace visitors.

Nearly 19 out of every 20 internet connections in the UK is now via broadband, according to the ONS. Of all UK households, 63% had broadband internet access in 2009, an increase from 56% in 2008; see Figure 3.
In December 2008, broadband connections accounted for 95.1% of all internet connections, up from 91.6% in March 2008. Dial-up connections continued to decrease, with a year on year fall of 51.7% to December 2008. Dial up now accounts for just 4.9% of connections in the UK at December 2008; see Figure 4.
On June 16th the Digital Britain Report was finally published and laid out the plans for universal broadband access by 2012 and a digital radio upgrade by 2015. Speaking at the launch culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said that BBC licence fee money will fund universal broadband alongside a “small levy” of 50p per month on all fixed telephone lines.
This tax on landlines will come into place before the next election. According to the treasury minister Stephen Timms, who is in charge of implementing Lord Carter’s Digital Britain plan, a 50p a month charge on all UK phone lines will be in this year’s finance bill. Timms said: “My aim is that we should legislate for that this side of a general election.” It is expected to cost each household a total of £42 and raising about £1 billion for investment in high-speed fibre networks.
The levy, which is expected to last for seven years has been heavily critised by some industry leaders. Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive of TalkTalk, was concerned that the tax might actually force people to give up their internet subscriptions.
“As well as being unfair we estimate that the increase in price will mean that over 100,000 mostly low income homes will be forced to give up their broadband lines. This is wholly inconsistent with the Government’s plans to tackle digital exclusion by increasing uptake and use of broadband. Crucially the scheme is likely to delay next generation broadband roll-out in rural areas rather than hasten it as private investors will wait for public funds to be made available.”
Britain added 445,000 net new broadband lines in the first half of 2009 to reach over 17.8 million lines in total, according to Point Topic.
This is about 100,000 more than their forecast at the beginning of the year. The number of net additions forecast for all of 2009 is now 900,000, up 240,000 (36%) on Point Topic’s earlier forecast. Looking further

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UK Internet Audience
ahead, it now projects over 23 million broadband lines in the UK by the end of 2013, nearly 1.2 million more than in its last forecast. Point Topic figures released in June show that last year was a tough twelve months for broadband, with the first half of 2008 in particular seeing low growth and low net additions.
According to the results of a survey by Deloitte/YouGov the prospect of faster broadband connections will not be the catalyst for increased TV viewing online. The survey found that 53% of people asked would not watch more online video clips or TV programmes even with a faster internet connection and 29% felt there was little importance in being able to watch television online.
Some 54% of the 2,123 viewers polled surf the internet while watching television, with 74% of 18 – 24-year-olds multi-tasking compared with 40% of 55+. Younger audiences are more likely to watch TV online but a surprisingly high percentage (43%) of 18-24-year-olds said they would not watch more TV online with faster broadband speeds.
A large proportion (71%) of those who sometimes watch television via the internet do so to catch up on programmes they’ve previously missed on television. Viewers’ awareness (83%) of broadcasters’ on-demand sites (such as iPlayer, itv.com, 4OD) is now greater than that for either YouTube (76%) or iTunes (64%).
James Bates, media & telecoms partner at Deloitte, said: “Stimulating investment in a next generation broadband infrastructure for Britain has been at the heart of the Digital Britain debate. However, as this survey shows, making high-speed broadband access widely available to consumers is no guarantee that it will be taken up.
“Demand and willingness to pay for services varies significantly, and there is little evidence that the mass market is prepared to pay substantially more for it.”
Broadband Speeds
Ofcom announced plans in June to back the development of ultra high-speed internet access across Britain in a bid to open up competition and clear the way for future investment.
The media regulator has unveiled a series of new measures to develop broadband that runs at speeds in excess of 40 megabits per second, which is more than 10 times faster than the current average speed, according to reports.
Ofcom also said it would consider extending BT’s remit, so that the telecoms company would have to share fibre-optic lines with other providers in the future, as well as continue to act as a wholesaler of the traditional copper-line broadband connections. In a statement, Ofcom said: “We want to support rapid and widespread investment in super-fast broadband and the continued, critical role of competition in meeting consumers’ needs.
“This is important because competition in super-fast broadband services and infrastructure will mean more investment, innovation, differentiation and choice, as well as competitive prices for consumers.”
The regulator’s report also puts forward a number of additional proposals, such as supporting industry developments, conducting reviews of the overall market and working to support private investment where possible.
Companies such as cable provider Virgin Media have already introduced faster broadband services of 50Mbps running over fibre optics.
If the plans go ahead, consumers will be able to download films online in a matter of minutes and companies will be able to significantly expand their online services.
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UK Internet Audience
According to a report from The Telegraph an estimated 166,000 people live in “not spots” where there is no Internet connection at all, whilst 2.75 million people – mostly in rural areas – have broadband speeds of less than two Megabits per second (2Mbps). There is speculative doubt that these areas will be upgraded to a satisfactory speed by 2012.
Mobile
Accessing mobile phone websites was the fastest growing sector online in the UK, according to figures from The Nielsen Company in August. Mobile phone websites saw a 58% increase in unique UK visitors from 7.7 million in July 2008 to 12.2 million in July 2009, with almost all players in this sector experiencing strong growth.
Figures from CCS Insight also highlighted the rise amongst young people connecting to the internet via mobile devices. A third of young adults in the UK regularly access Facebook and Twitter from their mobiles, according to a report released in July.
Mobile analysts CCS Insight, found that social networking is driving the growth of mobile internet. Based on a survey of more than 1,000 UK adults between 16 and 35 years old, the study also found that men are twice as likely as women to access the internet through their mobile phone.
One third of respondents said they would like to see the BBC’s iPlayer available on their mobile phones.Paolo Pescatore, report author and head of mobile content at CCS Insight, said: “The web is revolutionising

UK Internet Audience
the way people use mobile phones. Forget music downloads and video – social networking is what people want. Media owners and operators will have to find new ways to make money from their assets.
“And it’s clear from the report that the industry could do a better job marketing to women. Some networks and phone-makers have got it right. Their rivals are leaving money on the table.”
In September the GSMA, the body that represents the worldwide mobile communications industry, formally selected comScore to be its measurement partner for the implementation of its Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) service in the UK. The GSMA, comScore and the five UK operators (Vodafone, Orange, O2, 3 and T-Mobile) reached a formal agreement to launch the GSMA MMM services in the UK following the results of the feasibility study announced earlier in 2009.
The GSMA said that this joint action by the UK operators will create a market research tool to drive the growth of mobile media to the benefit of consumers, mobile service developers and the broader media industries. Henry Stevens, director Media and Entertainment, GSMA, said: “comScore has been a dedicated and effective partner in developing a technical solution for MMM that both meets the measurement needs of the media industry and fully respects the privacy of consumers.
“comScore has combined mobile-specific expertise with its established strength in online media measurement and we are very pleased to continue this successful relationship. Together we will show how, in a challenging economic environment, mobile is and will be a major driver of growth for the advertising and media industries.”
The GSMA will be working with ABC Electronic to deliver independent verification of MMM to industry agreed standards.
Research from The Nielsen Company has found that browsing the web was the fastest growing activity on UK mobile phones between the second and third quarters of 2009; see Table 7. The number of Britons using mobile internet hit 10.4 million in Q3 2009, up from 8.8 million in Q2 2009. This means over one-fifth of people in the UK with a mobile now use their handset to browse the web.
The second fastest growing activity was downloading applications or software, with the number of Britons doing this rising to 4.1 million in Q3, an increase of just over one million from 3.1 million in Q2.
Edward Kershaw, vice president of mobile media at The Nielsen Company, said: “Although there have been sizeable increases in the take-up of new mobile technologies such as video and location-based services, they remain niche forms of behaviour.
“Although the era of the handset as a truly multi-media device on a mass-market level lies somewhere on the horizon, the key for companies to successfully harness mobile lies in a realistic understanding of what media activities people on a large-scale are actually doing on their handsets now.”
The number of people in the UK using smartphones was up 10% between Q2 and Q3 2009 to 6.2 million – over 577,000 new users. However, the Nielsen figures reveal that despite this increase, the smartphone share of the UK market grew by just 1% to 15% of all UK mobile phone owners.
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