Ofcom report signals UK appetite for IPTV technology

Ofcom published its annual Communications Market Report 2008 report yesterday. One of its key finding is that there is a huge demand amongst UK consumers for features delivered by IPTV. It comes on the heals of BARB’s research which showed that on demand services weren’t denting traditional TV services.

But Ofcom reckons that viewers are watching programmes when they want and how they want, rather than just relying on the TV schedules. Time shifting and over the top services delivered via the Internet are both on the rise.

The proportion of people with an internet connection who are watching TV programmes online more than doubled from 8 to 17 per cent in twelve months. The BBC iPlayer, which enables viewers to watch programmes up to a week after they were broadcast, delivered more than 700,000 daily video streams in May 2008.

Nearly a third of internet users (32 per cent) watched video clips and webcasts in 2007, compared to a fifth (21 per cent) in 2006. The number of UK internet users who watched YouTube, reached 9 million in April this year, nearly 50 per cent more than a year ago.