Nielsen Data Report: February 2013

According to data recently released by digital measurement company Nielsen, the UK’s online audience is at its lowest level for almost a year.

Despite harsh weather sweeping across the country people turned away from the Internet following the post-Christmas slump.

February saw 41.7 million people in the UK access the internet, a month on month fall of nearly 1 million users. People who went online from home and work locations account for 40.2 million of the total. The highest online audience recorded so far was 43.9 million users in October 2012.

Out of the total UK digital audience in February, the majority classified themselves as having ‘some further college education’, at 30%. The second biggest demographic by education, are those that completed secondary school. 6.2 million, 15% of February’s digital population, were educated to a Bachelor Degree level, followed by associate degree or diploma at 11%.

The data also reveals that 5% of the UK online universe earned £80,000 or over with the biggest slice of the pie belonging to those who earned £30,000 to £49,000 at 25% (10.5 million people).

Further breakdowns can be found using the Universe Profile report here.

Top Broadcast Media

Nearly all of the top broadcast media sites took a tumble in February. Of all the websites in the top ten, only BBC Scotland saw a rise in activity, presumably because Scottish users were trapped indoors for the entire month. Although the monthly change was minute, it did increase by 1%. In fact, the slight jump in popularity pushed BBC Worldwide down one place (in the top ten sites in its category and overall).

Not so lucky was Channel 5 which suffered the biggest percentage loss of the group, down 28%. The Northern & Shell-owned terrestrial channel saw the website users fall by just under half a million users MoM and dropped one place in its category.

February saw CBS Entertainment Websites, home of American imports like How I Met Your Mother and Big Brother, jump into the top ten despite losing 2% of users MoM.

Sky Portal continued to lead the pack, pulling in 8.5 million unique users throughout the month. The BSkyB gateway site has lost 784,000 users since January, down 8.4%. This translated to the biggest loss in the top ten.

Top Classified

The frugal atmosphere across the country has kept alternative shopping methods popular, with the original auction site eBay remaining in the lead. Things weren’t so grim for the top ten sites in the category, with four of them showing some signs of growth over February. eBay retained the majority of January’s users, despite a small fall of -1%.

Users looking for a better bargain flocked to Bumblebee Auctions, a police auctions website offering up confiscated good. The site witnessed the biggest jump over the month, increasing January’s 80,000 users to 275,000 in February (a 244% increase).

Notorious American classifieds site Craigslist continued its reach into the UK market and moved up two places in the top ten. A 44% increase meant that 420,000 users in the UK accessed the site although time spent per person fell from 22 to 16 minutes.

Local community classifieds service Gumtree remained in second place and, although it was down by 6%, it still reached 12% of the UK’s online users. Overall, the site moved up four places to 54^th most popular site and increased time users spent on the site to 23 minutes.

Top Video

When it came to online video, YouTube continued to dominate, with the Google owned site netting 23 million users in February. The video sharing site (and catch-up service) boasted a 55% reach across all users, with the average time per person levelling out at two hours and six minutes.

Channel 4oD lost 2% of users MoM but still managed to move up two places, totalling at 2.2 million users. Overall the popular video on demand service jumped up 24 places to 159^th. 4oD leap frogged both Machinima on YouTube and Dailymotion, pushing them down one place each, increasing the amount of time users spent on the site to an average time of nine minutes.

Ahead in one place was BBC iPlayer with a total audience of 6.1 million, down from 6.8 million in January. Despite the loss, the première catch up site saw the time each user spent on the site jump by two minutes, up to 19 on average. This marks a year on year improvement of 43%.

LOVEFiLM.com pulled in 1.7 million individuals over the month, slightly higher than main rival Netflix‘s audience of 1.3 million. While Amazon’s LOVEFiLM site saw the time spent per person fall from 21 minutes in January to 18 minutes, Netflix maintained a steady 24 minutes per person, indicating users are engaging more with the it’s content. Netflix was also one of two sites in the top ten to gain more users in February, up by 11%.

Machinima on YouTube, the video entertainment network for gamers, was pushed down one place by 4oD‘s popularity and also witnessed the biggest MoM percentage loss (-20%). The loss of over half a million viewers saw the YouTube channel fall by 22 places overall, landing in 165^th position.

Further breakdowns and reports can found in the Online database.