The economic downturn has done nothing to slow the appetite for tablet devices or broadcasters to utilise them. Research commissioned by Sky from Mintel found 8% of respondents to have received a tablet over Christmas with an additional 16% of the British population intending to purchase one before the end of the year.
According to Ofcom research, released in 2011, some 9% of Britons already own one.
Mintel says the key purchase factors are listening to music (48%), social networking (48%), internet access (67%) and keeping up to date with the news (40%).
Writing about the survey on the Sky Views blog, David Gibbs, Sky’s director of mobile, said the findings chimed with the broadcaster’s experience over the last year. “During 2011, as smartphones and tablets became ever more sophisticated, and the quality of the TV experience they can deliver became ever more impressive, we saw an increasing demand from our customers to both watch TV on the move as well as enjoy experiences on companion devices that enhanced their enjoyment of our content.”
Sky has released a series of apps for iOS, Android and other phones – today it added a new app for Sky Sports News – and according to comScore data for October of last year, three Sky apps appeared in the top 20 UK apps by cellular data usage in the UK, including Sky Sports Football Score Centre. The success was made all the more sweet because the top 6 apps were all pre-installed on various smart phones.
