UK is nation of early adopters
UK consumers are some of the earliest adopters of new communications technologies, according to new Ofcom research.
They are among the best connected for broadband, mobile and digital TV and the UK has seen the fastest growth in smartphone take-up, revealed Ofcom's International Communications Market report which surveyed 17 countries.
The UK and Spain have the highest digital TV take-up at 91%. While UK consumers are ahead of the rest of the world in take-up of HD ready TV sets (59% of UK households, ahead of the US with 57%), take-up of HDTV services is lower in the UK than in other countries, where take-up tends to be linked to the amount of HDTV channels available.
In the USA, 44% of households have HDTV services with access to 404 HD channels, followed by Japan (43% of households and 130 channels), France (42% and 55 channels) and then the UK (13% and 50 channels).
The UK had the second highest number of homes with pay TV DVRs at the end of 2009 with 7.8 million devices, up by 40% on 2008. The USA had the highest number of homes with DVR subscriptions with 34.7 million at the end of 2009, up by more than a quarter (26%) year on year.
Ofcom's consumer research also found that the UK has more consumers watching TV on the internet with just under a quarter (24%) of consumers claiming to do this every week.
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