Thursday 23 August 2007

OfCom Report 07

Article on the BBC News page states "Britain enjoying 'digital boom' " (link). The article mentions that Ofcom "said Briton's were getting increasingly sophisticated in their use of communications technologies and often used several concurrently. For instance, a teenager playing an online game might take a picture of a high score or achievement unlocked while they play then text or e-mail it to friends or add it to a website or Facebook page."

This all related to the release of OfCom's 4th annula report into the communication's market (link). It looks ike it will be an interesting read, with such facts as:

The communications sector plays a vital role in the UK’s economy and in the life of its citizens. We estimate that revenue of over £50bn was generated in 2006 by a combination of broadcasting and telecoms networks and services. And figures from the Office of National Statistics suggest that in terms of Gross Value Added, telecoms, broadcasting and the content-related components of the creative industries contribute over three times as much as the UK’s electricity, gas and water supply industries combined.

But that people who own personal video recorders tend to fast-forward through adverts. No suprise there, Sherlock.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aye; I've had Sky + for a few years now, and I've never seen an advert in all that time as I find I time-shift nearly everything. When I realised that over 20 minutes an hour of tv is actually advertising I was shocked! But Sky can't say "Buy Sky + and skip the stupid adverts" because that just might annoy the advertisers, yet that's one of the best reasons for having it.

AktoMan said...

I've had a PVR for over a year, and it's great. If I want to keep progs, I can burn them to dvd. Or I can watch programs in sequence rather than the order they are on the video tape.

If I have a free 30mins, I can watch a prog on the list that's 30mins long.

I fast-forward rather than time-shift. The machine can do timeshifts, but I've never got round to figuring out how to do it. I watch so little, that I tend to catch progs off the PVR rather than watch live.

Oh, and it has allowed me to extract interesting things from longer programs, like Chris T pitching his Akto (from The Adventure Show). And some of Cameron McN's shorts from the same series.

Anonymous said...

I think that's what I meant by timeshifting!!! ie most of the things I watch I've recorded, and I fastforward through the ads. I wonder what kind of dilemma that gives Sky .. if everyone had Sky+ very few adverts would be watched, and all the "Plus 1" type channels would be redundant too. If only you could do the same with the weather.

AktoMan said...

It's not just Sky, Jerry, but all advert-funded companies. Low click-thoughs online must be hurting too. Make adverts more user-friendly, more targetted to the user rather than the shot-gun effect of old.

For me adverts don't work. giving me information about products I might be interested in, does work.