Our take on the Ofcom International Communications Market 2008 report

Ofcom has just released its latest report on The International Communications Market 2008 and it’s packed with lots of interesting and (less than interesting) data on global trends in the use of all things digital, including TV, broadband, telephony and radio.

Here’s our take on what’s most interesting in the report, hope it’s useful.

The digital world is converging fast!

1. There are 26 broadband connections per 100 people in the UK, placing us third behind the Netherlands (35%) and Sweden (31%) and penetration is growing at about 5% per year.
2. UK surfers are spending nearly 14 hours per week online, second only to US internet users who spend 15 hours online each week and this is growing at an average annual rate of 30% – so by our calculations, if this continues for another ten years web users will be online 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
3. More and more people are viewing TV shows over the web and its growing in the UK at a rate of 69% per year. The US lead the world with 26 downloads per head per year, with UK second at 8 downloads per head per year.
4. As a result 15% of UK web users claim to watch less broadcast TV as TV viewing retains its basic appeal (thanks to X Factor no doubt).
5. Mobile broadband availability (via HSDPA) is highest in the UK covering 87% of households.
6. The age of the CD is well and truly coming to an end – digital recorded music sales are growing at 20% per year and mobile music downloads now account for over half of all recorded digital music revenue in France, Italy and 29% in the UK. Whilst in Japan, mobile accounts for a staggering 90%+ of all digital music revenue!
7. Use of social networking sites on mobile phones is growing but still very niche, but broadcasting TV on mobiles has had less success with various service closures around the globe over the last 18 months.

The UK is the world capital of digital television!

1. The UK leads the way globally with the 86% of main TV sets connected to digital, followed by the US with 70%. Within digital TV, pay-TV thanks to successful marketing by Sky and Virgin Media continues to grow and is now in 47% of UK households.
2. High definition (HD) TV remains niche with approximately 1m homes enjoying HD (out of a total of nearly 25m TV homes) in the UK.
3. Nearly one third of UK households have a DVR (digital video recorder). This is the highest penetration in the world. This is largely due to the huge appeal and success of Sky+ which is now in over 4 million households.
4. TV is still a major national pass time with viewers in the UK watching over 3.5 hours of television a day, 7 days per week! This is less though than the Americans who watch an hour a day more on average.

Telephony use and spend just keeps on growing!

1. Telecoms companies keep on getting richer. In the UK alone their revenues continue to grow at 5% per year, driven by increased mobile use and broadband take-up whilst fixed line revenues fall slightly.
2. Broadband take up continues apace in the UK, but as penetration increases it is slowing from 20% in 2006 to 14% in 2007.
3. Texting keeps charging ahead with volume of texts sent growing by over 35% in the UK alone in 2007.
4. The UK lags the world in the provision of state-of-the-art fibre-optic delivery technology. In Japan an amazing 85% of the population have access to a full fibre-to-your-door service, whilst in the UK this is only 1% of the population. This reflects Virgin Media’s approach of running fibre to the street, rather than your door.

Still want more? Then head on over to the BBC, Daily Telegraph or WebUser for further analysis.