A BBC Worldwide survey of people in Ireland carried out between January and February 2012, and conducted by independent research agency Sponge It, reveals a huge appetite for digital news consumption amongst people in Ireland.
Newspaper websites (59.9%) now beat their hard copy equivalents (57.4%) as a source for news and current affairs. TV however still dominates as the main source of news at 63% with breaking news and sports the main drivers of content consumption for respondents.
With regards to the frequency of news consumption, online platforms are in the driving seat. To keep up with news and current affairs 54% use smartphone apps more than a couple of times a day followed by newspaper websites at 42% and TV websites also at 42%. This compares to 33% for TV sets and 11% for newspapers.
As to where media is consumed newspapers are popular in the home (99%) or at work (42%) with radio taking much more prominence while travelling (45%). Portable audio devices follow a similar trend but can also be associated with down time (28%). Smartphones are the device most diffusively used at all occasions in the day.
The survey also reveals our love for gadgets – 83% own a laptop, 64% a smartphone, 50% a games console and 21% a tablet computer. 86 per cent have broadband internet access. News consumption through online video sources has now become the norm with 56% citing this as something they do regularly.
The findings also outlined the importance of tailoring content for different platforms – TV, online, mobile and tablet computers. Seven out of 10 respondents believe having content optimised for their choice of device is important, with the majority (75%) accessing news content on laptop devices. Smartphones are the access device for 30%.
When visiting websites for news, RTE.ie (74%) is the most popular choice followed by BBC.com (53.5%), irishtimes.com (41.4%) and independent.ie (34.9%).
For sports news RTE (47%) is the most popular choice but only by a narrow margin. The BBC comes second (38%) followed by Sky News (21%) and The Irish Times (18%). The same order of popularity applies when it comes to ownership of smartphone apps for these media organisations.
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