Ofcom’s annual research into the Global Communications Market has found the industry to make an average £172 (€204.5) per person, of which £71 comes from subscriptions, £58 comes from advertising, with the remainder from public funding including the BBC Licence Fee.
Ofcom has compared the UK in 2007 with six large competing countries; France, Germany, Italy, the US, Canada and Japan. Data has also been included from Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland. There is also analysis of the BRIC countries; Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Consumption of online TV has grown rapidly since across several countries, including the UK, where there has been an increase of 69% since 2006. While some of the services are free-to-view and advertiser funded others are paid for with the US paying £1.70 for online TV and video content, the UK £0.98 and Canada £0.55.
Pay-TV take-up continues to grow, despite the growth of free digital services, Broadband TV News highlights the separation between pay-TV and premium TV. The majority of households in the Netherlands, Sweden, the US, Canada and, to a slightly lesser extent, Ireland and Germany, took pay-TV in 2007 and for the first time in 2007 the majority of Polish viewers subscribed to a pay-TV service.
However, high definition television continues to lag, with just nine million subscribers across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the US and Canada. Subscribers in the US and Canada accounted for 87% of the total and the UK representing the majority of Europe’s 1.2 million.
