Read (online) all about it!
Not that we didn't suspect this, but the British telecoms regulator Ofcom says that 16 to 24 year olds are rejecting television, radio, newspapers and magazines in favour of online services. The numbers are impressive, or worrying, depending on which business you are in. So, for example, 70 percent of these young persons (compared to 41 percent of the general population) use some kind of social networking site, such as My Space, and one in five have their own blog. Half of the group owns a games console or an MP3 player.
In what has to be troubling news for the BBC, Ofcom suggests that the online lifestyle may be contributing to a fall in television viewing. The 16-to-24 age group watch seven hours less TV a week than the average viewer, and when they do watch TV, they are turning to digital channels and away from public service broadcasting. Almost 20 million homes in Britian now have digital television, which means that technology adoption is not limited to the young. Between 2004 and 2005, the number of British households with broadband connections increased by 63 percent, while mobile phones have become increasingly important: As many UK households have a mobile phone now as have a landline.
Still, all may not be lost. MySpace has just set up a section called MySpace Books.
