People in the UK spend 45 per cent of their time watching television and using communication devices, according to the latest research from Ofcom.
They are also growing more adept at consuming different types of media at the same time, with an increasing number using their mobile phones while watching television or surfing the internet.
The figures, from Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report, shows that the average Briton spends almost four hours a day watching television, and spends a quarter of the time that they are online visiting social networking sites.
The report also shows the enduring popularity of television, with Britons settling down to watch three hours and 45 minutes of programming every day. And almost a third of households with internet access use their connection to watch catch-up television online – eight per cent more than the 23 per cent of households that did so last year.
There are an estimated 24 million HD-ready televisions in the UK, with five million households subscribing to high-definition services through satellite or cable deals, or via Freesat and Freeview services.
“For the first time, we can see just how central media and communications are to our lives,” said Peter Philips, a spokesman for Ofcom. “Increasingly, mobile devices, especially smartphones, are used for multimedia consumption, but live evening television still remains the main entertainment event of the day.”
There has been a significant increase in smartphone ownership in the last 12 months, with more than a quarter of people in the UK saying they own a smartphone. Last year, around nine million people used their mobile phone to surf the web, but that figure has increased to more than 13.5 million.
Those aged between 16 and 24 have become adept at using their phone to multitask, say, by browsing online while making a call, with 20 per cent of all media consumed by them throughout the day accessed in this manner.
“Younger people have shown the biggest changes in how we use media, particularly using different media at the same time,” said Philips. “But the divide between younger and older people’s use of technology is starting to narrow as more older people are getting online and finding that things like email are very important to them.”
Indeed, the report showed half of over-55s in the UK had broadband internet access at home, with more than a third of people in this age group using email every day, and almost half sending an email at least once a week. And 20 per cent of those aged between 55 and 64 said they used social networking sites, such as Facebook.
There is also evidence of a gender divide, with men spending nearly an hour more per day using media than women, at an average of seven hours and 33 minutes compared to six hours and 38 minutes.
The Ofcom report will get a mixed reception from mobile phone network operators – the figures show that the average number of voice calls made per person has increased each year by an average of 1.6 per cent since 2004, but the amount of data sent over its networks has also grown exponential, up 240 per cent in the last year alone. Operators are spending millions of pounds each day to ensure their networks can cope with the data demands placed on them by smartphones and mobile broadband services.
Ofcom surveyed 1,138 people, aged 16 and older, in compiling its annual report.
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