Broadband News

Britons spend more time online than the rest of Europe, study reveals

Wednesday 14 December, 2011

By Duncan Heaney

Britons love surfing, shopping and watching TV online.

A new report by Ofcom reveals that Britons spend more time, watch more television, and do more shopping online than any other nation in Europe.

The telecoms regulator has just published its sixth international communications market report, which compares use and adoption of digital services in the UK to 16 other countries across Europe, North and South America and Asia.

The study found that Britons spend an average of 746 minutes a week online. That’s more than 12 hours, and longer than any other country except for the US.

As it turns out, we’re also a nation of shopaholics. People in the UK spend an average of 84 minutes a month on retail websites. That wasn’t a lot more than French consumers though, with our neighbours across the Channel averaging 83 minutes a month checking out bargains online.

But we’re not just window shoppers. The UK also buys more from online retailers than the other European nations - 79% ordered goods or services online in 2010. Despite French consumers spending almost as much time on retail sites, the Dutch are second most likely to actually buy, with 74% of users whipping out their credit cards online.

The UK also likes to watch more TV online than any other nation. Catch up services such as BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4OD are growing in popularity, and now 27% of Britons go online to watch TV every week - higher even than the US (23%).

One area where the UK does lag a little is in the number of broadband connections. While The UK fares better than most of the nations surveyed, with 74% of households having internet access, it’s still playing catch-up with France (77%), Canada (83%) and the Netherlands (89%).

That’s just a smattering of Ofcom’s findings. The full report paints a fascinating picture of how the UK has whole-heartedly embraced the internet, mobile phones and digital TV.