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Women, Seniors Show Heavier Web Use In Britain

  • BBC News, Friday, August 24, 2007 10:46 AM
Great Britain, farther along than the U.S. in the areas of broadband adoption, cell phone technology and Web advertising, is in the midst of a revolution in communication services, according to a new study. The Web, cell phones and MP3 players are all contributing to a shift in media habits, away from older technologies like TV, radio and DVD players. Interestingly, the Ofcom study says that women are the dominant Web users in certain age groups, while older Web users spend more time online than their younger counterparts, who also are spending more time with Web-based and wireless media.

In all, Britons spend 50 hours per week consuming media, whether it be the Web, the phone, TV or radio, but the amount of time they spend with each has shifted dramatically. Mobile phone use is up 58 percent and Web use has grown 158 percent since 2002. Meanwhile, consumption of TV, radio and land-line phones has dropped.

For marketers, it may come as a surprise that women between the ages of 25-34 account for 55 percent of the time that demo spends online. And another: 16 percent of Britons aged 65 and older spend 42 hours per month online--that's more than any other age group. These trends are probably exclusive to Britain, particularly the last one, as older generations are not typically thought of as heavy Web users in America.

Read the whole story at BBC News »

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