Tablets, Spotify, social apps and casual games loom large in the latest report from consultancy firm Deloitte. Media Consumer 2014: The Digital Divide is the latest in a series of annual surveys, quizzing 2,000 Brits about their media habits.
It estimates that the average UK household spends around £900 a year on all forms of media, from music and TV to newspapers and books. Here are 10 of the other findings that stood out from the report:
1. More of us live in 'mass-geek' households
Mass-geek? Deloitte says that 49% of UK households now own at least one smartphone, tablet and computer, but that these households are 12 times more likely to own six or more computing devices than what the firm calls "non-geek" households.
The report suggests that these people are relatively better off – 72% of them fall into the ABC1 demographic category. The research also suggests that tablet ownership took a big leap in the last year, with nearly 60% of households now owning at least one.
The 49% and 60% stats don't seem to square, but I suspect Deloitte means 49% own at least one smartphone, tablet and computer (not or). I've contacted the company to clarify this. Update: Yes, that's exactly the case, and has been amended accordingly above.
2. Brits like to binge... on TV
Well, among other things. 24% of people surveyed for the report said they prefer to watch "several episodes of their favourite show in succession rather than wait for the weekly broadcast". Binge-viewing is higher among 25-35 year-olds – just over 35% – than any other age group.
"Half as many 25-34 year olds as over 65 year olds we surveyed said they preferred to watch their favourite shows when they were broadcast as it gave them something to look forward to," explains the report.
Sharing a house seems to spur the habit: 30% of people in shared houses said they binge-view, versus 19% of people who live alone. And – no surprises here – bingeing is more common if you pay for a subscription TV service, with 4.5% of respondents binge-viewing on Netflix.
3. 50+ channels but there's nothing on...
Well, nothing on many of them that we want to watch, individually. Deloitte notes that while all TV households now have access to at least 50 channels, 72% of people it surveyed said they only regularly watch 10 or fewer channels.
The report also talks about a "fattening cord" for TV viewing where, rather than ditching pay-TV subscriptions for services like Netflix, we're more likely to add them on top. "Pay TV subscribers are 50 per cent more likely than free-to-air only homes to subscribe to an additional TV streaming service," it claims. "Far from thinning or cutting the cord, demand for new content suppliers is thickening it."
One problem here may be that no one TV streaming service has a comprehensive catalogue of shows to watch on-demand, with exclusive deals still leaving yawning gaps on Netflix, LoveFilm and their rivals. Let's see if this cord continues to fatten if and when that problem eases.
4. The trust gap has narrowed between print and online news
80% of Brits read a newspaper online or in print, although only 51% pay for it themselves. Deloitte says publishers continue to work hard to make more money from their digital arms – digital ad revenues were up 18% for the industry in 2013, while mobile and tablet revenues grew by 80%, albeit from a small base.
There are some interesting findings on trust, though: Deloitte says that 34% of respondents trust print news to be accurate, versus 29% who trust online outlets. Yet for under-35s, those percentages are 39% and 35% respectively. "People who trust one source tend to also trust the other," suggests the report.
5. Young social habits: Facebook, Twitter, then Snapchat
No surprises in Facebook being the UK's most popular social network: 67% of Brits have a profile, with just over half of them active. A third of respondents said they have a Twitter account, with two thirds of those people using it regularly. And despite regular questions about whether teens are ditching Facebook, 16-24 year-olds are actually the age group least likely to have stopped using it.
Deloitte breaks the social networking usage for under-24s out in a separate graph in the report: Facebook and Twitter are the most popular in the UK, followed by Snapchat, Instagram and Tumblr. Note Snapchat beating Instagram – the reverse is true in the US – with around 30% and 20% penetration respectively among British under-24s.
6. It costs £3m to build even a small cinema
According to Deloitte, 27 out of London's 73 constituencies don't have a cinema at all. That's less surprising when you read the report's claim that it now costs around £3m to build even a small, two-screen cinema. "It is therefore little surprise that large cinemas are being placed close to the richer audiences that guarantee returns," claims the report.
Even so, 53% of Brits say they go to the cinema at least once every six months, and 22% once a month or more. The number of cinemagoers has been in "gradual decline" since 2009, but Deloitte points to a bright spot in the growth of "specialised" cinemas – art-house being the example cited – across the country.
7. 'Gaming shame' is a thing of the past
In 2014, do we still need to talk about gaming as a leisure activity while using imagery of geeky teenage boys hunched over their games consoles? Deloitte's report tries to dispatch it once and for all: "While the average console gamer is a 16-24 year old male, the average casual gamer (playing on tablets, smartphones and social networks) is a 25-34 year old woman."
Stats abound on this shift: a third of British smartphone owners say they play games on their phones; 10% of over-55s are playing casual games; and half the people surveyed said they think games can be used as an educational tool. That's interesting: think about the average age of teachers who are now in a position of responsibility for taking decisions about resources and technology within schools, and it's highly likely that many grew up with games in some form.
8. There's still a sizeable market for consoles
Are smartphones and tablets killing the traditional console gaming market? Well, no – more massively increasing the overall number of people playing games on any device. How is the next-generation console world shaping up? Deloitte claims 6% of gaming households have a PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Wii U, while 10% of all respondents to its survey said they are considering buying one in 2014.
There's a warning too: "With roughly 40 per cent of console gamers buying only one cinematic (otherwise known as AAA) game such as Call of Duty a year, it is clear why smaller studios are struggling to compete with major games franchises," suggests the report.
"The first showing of major software franchises like Metal Gear Solid, Halo and Final Fantasy on next generation platforms will be vital in persuading consumers to spend on that new hardware. Only with consoles in a sufficient number of homes can the future of the console, and therefore the AAA games industry as a whole, be determined."
9. Streaming music subscribers doubled in the last year...
If you've been following the digital music world, this finding won't be a huge shock: in January, music body the BPI said that Brits streamed 7.4bn songs in 2013, double their total in 2012. But Deloitte's research suggests that we're now also much more likely to be paying for Spotify, Deezer, Napster, Google Play or one of their rivals.
"11 per cent of under-35s and eight per cent of 34-44 year olds pay to stream music online and take-up across all ages has doubled since the previous year," claims the report. It also notes that mobile phones are now the preferred music listening devices for 16-24 year-olds.
10. ...but radio is still important
Streaming music isn't killing off traditional radio. Two thirds of respondents said they listen to radio at least every day: "It is still a more popular method to find out about new bands and music than Spotify and iTunes combined," notes Deloitte.
This corresponds to figures released earlier this month by radio body RAJAR, which claimed that 48.1m Brits – 90% of the adult population – listen to radio every week, averaging around 21.5 hours a week. The appeal of streaming services offering us 25m+ songs to play on demand is growing, but the pleasure of having a human being play us songs over the airwaves isn't going away just yet.
One thing Deloitte's report doesn't touch on is the crossover between radio and streaming. The BBC's Playlister service helps people turn its DJ's picks into playlists for Spotify, Deezer and YouTube, for example, while carefully-curated (or "programmed", to use radio lingo) playlists are increasingly prominent on the streaming services.
