U.K. Consumers Spending More on Media

LONDON: While time spent watching TV, reading books and browsing social media has fallen in the U.K., British consumers are increasingly willing to spend money on content, according to KPMG’s latest Media & Entertainment Barometer.

The survey indicates that British media consumption in many areas has plateaued or slightly decreased, but money spent on traditional TV, as well as on digital books, online games and magazine and newspaper apps, has risen. Traditional media still gets the lion’s share of consumer spend, the survey says, at £6 per month, versus £2 per month on new media. Consumers are spending about £10 per month on television. KPMG U.K. also found that 52 percent of Britons own a smartphone, and 20 percent own tablets.

“The results clearly show that U.K. consumers are increasingly making more conscious decisions about what type of media they choose and how much time they spend on it," said David Elms, KPGM’s head of media. "Contrary to popular perception they are also increasingly prepared to spend money, especially for digital content. The results prove that media companies are already changing habits and persuading consumers that content is worth paying for.

“Although U.K. consumers have been brought up on a diet of free digital content, attitudes are slowly beginning to change," Elms commented. "U.K. consumers are beginning to acknowledge the perks of paying for the digital content. This mind shift has happened before. As a nation, we moved from license-fee paid terrestrial TV to multiple channel choices on subscription-based satellite and cable television. The delivery mechanisms for effective digital consumption of media—technology, networks and spectrum—exist and are constantly upgrading, with 4G networks now rolling out nationally. It is up to the media companies to continue to respond with pricing strategies and content that consumers want to embrace. The challenge for many media providers is that they are yet to establish a loyal digital customer base. At the moment many media providers try to monetize content by appealing to the mass audience. The danger is that they effectively give away content for free and bring down their margins. They need to become more sophisticated by looking at and understanding both the content they have and the consumers who use it to develop a more targeted proposition and pricing model."