Is Use of On-demand Becoming Universal?

"Attitudes to online and on-demand content. 2014 Report", April 2015, by bdrc continental for Ofcom, 96 pages.

Methodology: Interviews with a representative sample of 2,678 adults who use on-demand and online services, plus an additional sample of 500 teenagers (aged 12-15).
The online questions cover OTT and streaming, content available via the Internet, apps or through service providers such as BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Netflix, etc. Questions cover VOD (free or paid), video posted on blogs or social networks (Facebook, Twitter), Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, consoles.
The survey took place in the UK in June and October 2014 (two waves) and took between 12 to 15 minutes.

Key results of the survey

• "UK adults’ consumption of online and on-demand AV content is almost universal for those aged under 24", says Ofcom
• Under the age of 24, on-demand is the rule (94%), whether catch-up TV or YouTube. 
• Under the age of 16, teenagers more often use mobile devices, smartphones and tablets, and less often computers (especially for non-paid long-form and short-form content). 
• The younger the consumers, the more likely they are to consume on-demand media ; parents are more likely than non-parents to use on-demand media.
• News video websites are less watched than any other service

Conclusion

Nothing here to surprise us: YouTube and social networks represent real threats for traditional commercial media. Mobile consumption will keep growing. Teenagers today certainly set a trend for the upcoming years.
These results are especially important for publishers and even more so for advertisers: this survey indicates how critical it is to measure all kinds of video consumption instead of TV consumption on home TV sets only. Cross-device measurement should become universal.
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of a TV culture: linear, bundled, long-form, consumed on immobile TV sets? Video on-demand is now everywhere.

N.B. 

It would have been interesting to understand the attitudes of non consumers of on-demand media. What proportion do they represent among the total online population ? Why do they not use on-demand media: price, technology?

The report also covers concerns regarding on-demand and online content, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, attitudes towards regulation.

Media Literacy among young teenagers in UK

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Every year since 2005 Ofcom (UK regulator for communication industries) has published the UK Children's Media Literacy Report. Let's look at some data concerning young teenagers and the net, taken from a survey conducted among a sample of 2071 children 5-15 and their parents (fieldwork took place in two waves, spring and fall 2010). Comparison with 2009 (publication : April 2011)

• 70% of their parents admit to knowing less about the net than their children (by the way, in the U.S., according to Nielsen AC, 1/3 of the apps on parents phones are installed by their kids, around 9 years old)
• 35% own a smartphone ( vs 13% of the 8-11s)
• 23% use their smartphone to go on the net
• number of calls made on the phone decreases (from 25 to 20 per week)
• number of text messages increases (from 104 to 113)
• 81% own a gaming device
• 23% go online with a videogame console
• 56% use the Internet alone, most of the time
• 41% of them access the net from their bedroom (their own private space)
• 38% of them watch video online in ther bedroom (66% for Youtube or the like)
• 8% of them never use the net
• weekly time spent on the net: 15.6 hours (vs 17.2 on TV)
• The media they would miss the most would be their cell phone, and then TV and the net (24% each). TV was 32% in 2009.

Nothing too surpising but mostly confirmation for an age group that doesn't have much free time (school). The smartphone is becoming the first means of communication (calls, text, social networks) and an important way of accessing entertainment (video, videogames). 

TV would be less and less missed? Probably because the smartphone and the computer allow the younger people access to video. The TV set becomes less central as teenagers want to be by themselves. As usual, these results are biased by implicit definitions used to survey people, which are inadequate. While talking about TV, one should distinguish the TV set and the programs. Teenagers watch less on the TV set, and compensate online (computer, smartphones). TV nowadays equals TV sets + online video (YouTube, etc.).

What is the most striking is the growing importance of media that isolates teenagers from their family. Is that new? Probably not. Teenagers have always wanted to be left alone. Books, comic books, radio used to and still provide that isolation too.

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Don't fight the Internet

Ce qui a fondé la décision du Conseil constitutionnel de refuser certains articles de la loi dite "Hadopi", ce sont les Principes Généraux du Droit (PGD) ou "principes de valeur constitutionnelle".

Le Conseil affirme qu'Internet relève des Droits de l'homme au titre de la liberté de communication, de la vie démocratique, de la formation et de l'expression des idées.

Voici le texte fondateur de la Décision du Conseil constitutionnel :

"12. Considérant qu'aux termes de l'article 11 de la Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789 : " La libre communication des pensées et des opinions est un des droits les plus précieux de l'homme : tout citoyen peut donc parler, écrire, imprimer librement, sauf à répondre de l'abus de cette liberté dans les cas déterminés par la loi " ; qu'en l'état actuel des moyens de communication et eu égard au développement généralisé des services de communication au public en ligne ainsi qu'à l'importance prise par ces services pour la participation à la vie démocratique et l'expression des idées et des opinions, ce droit implique la liberté d'accéder à ces services ;"

Au même moment, en Grande-Bretagne, l'Ofcom - qui régit l'économie numérique de la communication - arrive à une semblable conclusion par une voie démonstrative différente (enquête sociologique sur l'accès à Internet) : "the internet is increasingly becoming a service which is an essential tool for social and economic participation".

Internet acquiert le même statut qu'ont acquis autrefois les anciens médias d'information et de culture : Internet est libre parce que, selon les lois républicaines (1881, Bichet, 1986, etc.), la communication est libre. Le droit à Internet est imprescriptible. Des conséquences politiques se déduisent de cette affirmation ; elles concernent l'aménagement du territoire, les tarifs du haut débit, le régime scolaire, les dispositifs d'incitations, etc.

Le droit rejoint le réalisme économique et politique et traduit dans son code cet aphorisme de l'économie numérique : on ne se bat pas contre Internet.