Young People Moving Away From Traditional Media

Young people aged 16-24 are increasingly moving away from traditional media and going online, according to the latest Ofcom Communications Market report from Ofcom.

The report shows that younger people are embracing new technologies to the detriment of traditional platforms and services. The 16-24 year old age group watches less public service broadcasting output than ever before, with the share of viewing to terrestrial channels among this demographic down from 74.3% of their viewing time in 2001 to 58% in 2005.

Ofcom says that rather than watch these terrestrial stations, younger people opt instead for newer digital channels that might better reflect their values and interests.

The regulator paints a similar picture with regard to radio, saying that this age group is listening to proportionately less analogue and commercial output than average and is instead replacing it with digital listening and output from newer national commercial services.

The trend continues with telecoms, where young adults are moving from fixed line telephony to mobile calls and texts. Ofcom says that 16-24 year old subscribers make on average seven more calls and send 42 more texts per week than the population as a whole.

Ofcom also says that young adults who use the internet do so for 21 more minutes per week than the UK average and at least 70% of them have used websites for keeping up contacts, compared with 41% of all adults.

Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk