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Web use taking over from 'traditional' media

Internet use is on the increase, with “silver surfers” spending more time online than younger users, a report out yesterday reveals. As a result, the average time spent watching television and listening to the radio has dipped over the past year.

Web users aged 65 and over spend on average 42 hours a month online, more than any other group of internet users, communications regulator Ofcom said. The survey also found that in the 25-34 age group, women spent more time online than their male counterparts. Radio listening dropped by 2% over the same period to two hours and 50 minutes per day on average. Daily mobile phone use is up 58% on 2002 and, over the same period, net use has grown 158%. By contrast Britons spend far less time watching TV, listening to the radio or chatting on a fixed line phone.

Ofcom spokesman Peter Phillips said: “Use of the internet is now starting to eat into the time that people are spending using traditional media like TV and radio.”

That shift is reflected in a change in advertising spend with the figure for online adverts now outstripping that of ITV1 and Channel 4 combined, Ofcom said. Internet advertising revenue over the year covered by the survey rose by 47% from 2005 to 2006 to pass £2bn as TV advertising revenue fell to £5bn last year. Radio advertising’s share of UK advertising spend has dropped by more than 14% over the past five years.

For more information from the Ofcom report, visit www.ofcom.org.uk.Â

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .