Television continues to grow at the fastest rate of all the telecommunications industries.
Revenues climbed by 3.1% in 2013 to £254 billion. A key driver continues to be subscription television, which added another 4.4% to reach £127 billion, representing half of the revenues. Advertising and licence fee revenues grew at a more modest 1.9% and 1.6% respectively.
According to Ofcom’s ninth annual review of the international telecommunications sector total revenues in 2013 were £1,205 billion, an increase of 2.1% year on year.
Among telecoms, television, radio and postal sectors it was the telecoms industries that had the largest absolute increase in revenue in 2013, up by £18 billion to £842 billion.
The largest annual growth in television revenues amongst European countries came in the UK, which increased by 3.4% or £0.4 billion in 2013. Revenues fell year on year in Italy, Spain and Poland, with Spain having the largest proportional year-on-year decline, falling 6.2%, or £0.2 billion.
Online TV and video revenues in the UK continued to rise, up by £227 million to £648 million, though this was far outstripped by the US, which between 2009 and 2013 grew from a base of £1.0 billion to £5.1 billion.
A third of the online population in the UK use the internet to watch TV programmes or films at least once a week. Almost half (48%) of those watching online TV are doing so to access content from the free-to-air broadcasters.
Thirty-eight per cent of respondents in the United States had used a non-broadcaster subscription VOD service in the past week, a higher percentage than any comparator country other than China.
The UK leads the way in European smart TV use – almost a quarter of UK consumers claim to have a smart TV, with the vast majority (84%) having connected their TV and used the internet functionality.
The UK is one of only five countries to have 100% of all main TV sets receiving digital TV in 2013. In the UK, Italy, Japan, Australia and Singapore, 100% of all main TV sets received DTV in 2013.
