Nielsen Data Report: April 2013
The UK’s online population witnessed a slight decrease in April, down by just over half a million users month on month.
In total, 41.8 million people took to the information super highway, with 40.3 million of those accessing the internet from work or home at some point over the month.
As ever, men just about made up the majority of the digital universe, accounting for 51% of all users in April. Women aged 50 and over accounted for 29% (6 million) of all female users. This was followed by women aged 35-49 who made up 28% (5.7 million).
It seems the internet was the playground of the upper and lower middle classes with the ABC1s making up 55% of the digital population. Grade B, defined as the ‘middle’ middle class, took the biggest slice of the demographic pie, accounting for 29.4% (12.3 million) of those online in April.
Further breakdowns can be found using the Universe Profile report here.
Broadcaster Media Sites
April saw Channel 5 jump into the top 10, as the Northern and Shell-owned broadcaster saw a rise of 58,000 users – bringing in a total of just under 1 million and jumping up 85 places overall. However, the channel’s website was only visited by 2.4% of the total users in April.
Doing much better was Sky Portal, home of remote record and subscriber’s account information, which was the most visited Broadcast Media site over the month, attracting 9.2 million users. This represented a small 1% month on month increase. BSkyB’s main site was more popular with male users, who accounted for 60% of visits.
The BBC was heavily represented in the top ten, with BBC Future Media & Technology (representing broadcast specific URLs like programme listings) popping up in third place and attracting 4 million users. BBC Radio celebrated an increase in users, up 4% for the month – helping the site move up one place.
BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s international commercial arm, fell one spot and witnessed the biggest percentage and actual loss compared to March. A 17.8% drop in its unique audience (- 576,000 users) resulted in a total audience of 2.7 million for the month. Despite this, those that did visit stayed for longer – the average time spent per person increased by sixty seconds to six and a half minutes.
BBC Scotland also fell, down 10.6%, resulting in a total of just over 2.3 million users. BBC TV gained just under 1% but this was enough to push it up one spot.
| UK Rank | Site | Apr 13 (000s) | Mar 13 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | Sky Portal | 9,243,000 | 9,164,000 | 79,000 | 0.9 |
| 58 | ITV.com | 4,907,000 | 5,315,000 | -408,000 | -7.7 |
| 74 | BBC Future Media & Technology | 4,080,000 | 4,609,000 | -529,000 | -11.5 |
| 80 | Channel 4 | 3,736,000 | 3,912,000 | -176,000 | -4.5 |
| 102 | BBC Radio | 3,134,000 | 3,012,000 | 122,000 | 4.1 |
| 131 | BBC Worldwide | 2,654,000 | 3,230,000 | -576,000 | -17.8 |
| 153 | BBC Scotland | 2,348,000 | 2,626,000 | -278,000 | -10.6 |
| 302 | BBC TV | 1,275,000 | 1,264,000 | 11,000 | 0.9 |
| 357 | CBS Entertainment Websites | 1,116,000 | 1,314,000 | -198,000 | -15.1 |
| 402 | Channel 5 | 985,000 | 927,000 | 58,000 | 6.3 |
Current Events Sites
The top ten sources of news and current events didn’t see too much disruption in April, with only half of the top ten seeing small drops in activity. Trinity Mirror Nationals, a collection of sites that includes Daily Mirror and Daily Record, increased by almost 7% and jumped up twenty overall places. This helped the site push into the top ten within its category.
While HuffingtonPost remained in the same overall position (97th) the digital news provider was thrust of the top ten news sites by Trinity Mirror Nationals’ minor success. After losing 224,000 users over the month, HuffingtonPost totalled at 3.2 million for April.
The top five most popular site rankings remained the same in April, although The Guardian and MailOnline did lose users (down -2.8% and -5.4%, respectively) The Telegraph managed to hang on to the same size audience as the previous month.
Despite the inertia of the top ten, The Independent still managed to lose 330,000 users – the biggest actual and percentage fall in the line-up, slipping down one place. The amount of time users spent on the site fell by two minutes to eight minutes per person.
| UK Rank | Site | Apr 13 (000s) | Mar 13 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | BBC | 20,818,000 | 20,806,000 | 12,000 | 0.1 |
| 18 | BBC News | 11,198,000 | 10,964,000 | 234,000 | 2.1 |
| 37 | The Guardian | 7,273,000 | 7,483,000 | -210,000 | -2.8 |
| 39 | MailOnline | 7,039,000 | 7,442,000 | -403,000 | -5.4 |
| 45 | Telegraph | 5,660,000 | 5,658,000 | 2,000 | 0.0 |
| 60 | BBC Homepage | 4,819,000 | 4,721,000 | 98,000 | 2.1 |
| 61 | Yahoo! News Websites | 4,809,000 | 4,736,000 | 73,000 | 1.5 |
| 91 | Trinity Mirror Nationals | 3,402,000 | 3,185,000 | 217,000 | 6.8 |
| 92 | The Independent | 3,401,000 | 3,731,000 | -330,000 | -8.8 |
| 96 | The Guardian News | 3,265,000 | 3,420,000 | -155,000 | -4.5 |
Video Sites
Reflecting the overall digital population trend, the majority of the top ten video sites didn’t do so well throughout the month. Compared with March’s data, nine of the top ten witnessed a loss in users, with Google’s reigning champion, YouTube, being hit the hardest.
The site, full of user generated content, tumbled by -3.3%, which may seem insignificant but translates to a loss of 791,000 users. In total, YouTube still managed to pull in 23 million users into its vortex of cute animals and catch up TV. On average, each visitor spent two hours and 58 minutes on the site in April.
Only one of the top video sites managed to increase its audience month on month with Netflix enjoying a 9% jump. The American provider of on-demand content has been growing in popularity as the exclusive online home of shows such as House of Cards and Breaking Bad. The company had been heavily promoting the May release of a new series of Arrested Development, with the coverage helping the VOD site move up two places.
Dailymotion, Vimeo and file sharing site Movie2k.to all slipped down once place while ITV Player jumped up a spot. Vimeo and LOVEFiLM had the biggest percentage falls month on month, down -24.2% and -15.6%, respectively.
| UK Rank | Site | Apr 13 (000s) | Mar 13 (000s) | Change (000s) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | YouTube | 23,050 | 23,841 | -791 | -3.3 |
| 42 | BBC iPlayer | 5,862 | 6,092 | -230 | -3.8 |
| 176 | Machinima on YouTube | 2,128 | 2,319 | -191 | -8.2 |
| 184 | ITV Player | 2,013 | 2,143 | -130 | -6.1 |
| 189 | Dailymotion | 1,951 | 2,185 | -234 | -10.7 |
| 211 | Channel 4oD | 1,751 | 2,011 | -260 | -12.9 |
| 229 | LOVEFiLM.com | 1,635 | 1,937 | -302 | -15.6 |
| 295 | Netflix | 1,292 | 1,185 | 107 | 9.0 |
| 298 | Vimeo | 1,287 | 1,699 | -412 | -24.2 |
| 355 | Movie2k.to | 1,136 | 1,301 | -165 | -12.7 |
Further breakdowns and reports can found in the Online database.