Online TV Revenue In UK Grew 41% In 2013, Subscriptions By 71%

Online TV revenue in the UK increased by 41% and reached £364 million last year, with subscriptions being the fastest growing revenue channel — increasing by 71% to £112 million, The Drum reports, quoting the most recent Communications Market Report by Ofcom.

With both figures being more than impressive, the research firm concludes that online video services — like streaming — are gaining traction in the UK market. Still, online TV remains just a drop in the country’s overall market pool, that generated £12.9 billion worth of revenue last year, an increase of 3.4% compared to 2012.

Ad revenue from broadcast TV grew 4% and neared £3.7 billion, the publication reports. Just like with online TV, subscription revenues here grew as well, although at a more moderate pace — just 6.7%. This, however, amounts to £5.9 billion of revenue, which is 46% of the industry’s overall revenue.

In the grander scheme of the UK communications market, TV was the industry that reported the most significant growth. Together with the reported 2% increase of postal revenues, its growth was enough to compensate for the falling revenues of radio and telecoms. Because of that, revenue in the overall communications sector remained flat at £60.1 billion.

Another thing that the report claims remained stable was the amount of time Britons spent viewing TV. This, however, seems to contradict figures by the Broadcast Audience Research Board, quoted by The Drum. The board reports that average TV viewing time for all age groups in the UK was 232 minutes in 2013 — down from 241 minutes in 2012.