Who in the UK is watching the most porn? And other interesting facts from Ofcom's 2024 report.
A Glass half full report?
UK media regulator Ofcom reports that adults in Northern Ireland are more likely to look at pornography online than those in Wales, Scotland, and England. Another way to frame the conversation is that there’s more honest people in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK.
This finding was from Ofcom’s 2024 Online Nation report, which looks at media consumption in the UK. You can read the report in full on the Ofcom site.
What I found interesting:
YouTube is, by some margin, the most consumed video-app in the UK. 32m people are using it with an average 1396 minutes consumed each month. Compare that to Netflix’s app at 12m users and 185 minutes consumed each month. BBC iPlayer is at just 9m users per month, with 206 minutes consumed each month, but it’s worth noting that iPlayer use is broken out from BBC News, which has much higher usage.
Apple Music is used by 22m people each month, beating Spotify at just 20m. But Spotify users are far more loyal to the app, consuming 257 minutes per month compared to Apple’s 97 minutes.
Related:
Those following Australia’s Senate yesterday passing legislation to ban users under the age of 16 might also want to check out Ofcoms research into the volume of under-age users accessing social channels in the UK.
As the ABC notes:
In the United Kingdom, many news outlets have been following the debate in Australia, particularly after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he would consider pursuing similar laws in the future.
"I'm in touch with the legislators in Australia, as you'd expect, I'm really interested in what they're doing, why they're doing it, and the evidence they're basing it on," he told the BBC last week.
The Independent, a British online newspaper, argued the bill "sets Australia up as a test case for a growing number of governments which have legislated, or have said they plan to legislate, an age restriction on social media".
With $50m fines in place for social media companies failing to take reasonable measures to keep kids off the platform and the UK also looking at similar measures, eyes are on Meta to see what actions it takes in the Australian market. If the company threatens to shut up shop in Australia right before a Federal election (expected in early 2025), I’d suggest that could be enough to tip an election. Folks love their Instagram.
Adam Scott and Ben Stiller will co-host a new Severance companion podcast. Read: Variety
UK Masterchef host Gregg Wallace will step down from the show after allegations made by 13 people of inappropriate sexual comments made by Wallace. These allegations were across a 17-year period covering five different programmes. Read: BBC
UK chief Sarah Rose says she isn’t worried about the future of Channel 5 as Paramount is bought by Skydance because they are profitable and offer bang for their buck. I’d suggest that profit generation won’t be what saves a linear broadcast business from being sold by Skydance - it’ll be how much value it offers the digital aspirations of the new business holders. Read: Deadline
Australian broadcasters Seven, ABC, SBS and print media company ACM have formed a coalition to negotiate with AI companies like OpenAI to secure compensation for the use of their content in training large language models. Read: Capital Brief
La Palma debuts on Netflix Dec 12.
A Norwegian family vacationing on La Palma faces disaster when a young researcher discovers alarming signs of an imminent volcanic eruption.
Gangs of London returns for season 3 on Sky in 2025.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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