88% of UK Internet Users Have Broadband

The BBC reports that broadband penetration among UK internet users has risen.

"Almost nine out of 10 UK net users are connecting via broadband services, official figures reveal.

Information gathered by National Statistics (ONS) for September show that 88.4% of Britons are choosing to use broadband rather than dial-up.

The statistics show that 49.2% of those connections are for services advertised at two megabits per second or faster.

The figure for September is only slightly up on the June total of 86.2%, but indicates a 26% rise over the last 12 months.

The statistics show that broadband has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity among net users since services started to be available and affordable.

As recently as April 2003, ONS reports, 81% of people went online via dial-up modems and only 17% had broadband.

The statistics also offer a breakdown of the speeds that people have signed up to, and show that the proportion of people on higher speeds - between two and eight megabits per second (Mbps) - has grown. Only 4% of those questioned were using services faster than eight Mbps."- BBC.

Around 10m households, or 40% of UK homes do not have internet access.

Podcast Nation Goes Ning

Podcast Nation, the UK's most complete and up-to-date podcast directory, is to develop its community using the now well-established Ning network, at http://podcastnation.ning.com.

Podcast Nation Editor-in-Chief Mark Crook said, "Podcast Nation is a great way for both finding and promoting podcasts, and by developing our community at Ning, which has proved itself as a flexible and reliable system for building social networks, we can put podcast producers and listeners together. We've always been behind building communities - we were one of the principal sponsors of this year's highly successful PodCamp UK - and this takes us further down that path. I'm really looking forward to seeing what people will do with these powerful tools."

The UK Podcast Forum is also moving to run on the same network.

Women and Oldies Top UK Web Users, Say Ofcom

"The net, mobile phones and MP3 players are revolutionising how Britons spend their time, says Ofcom's annual report. It reveals that older media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology.

Surprisingly, it also shows that women, in some age groups, are the dominant web users and older web users spend more time online than any group.

Among children it showed that web and mobile phone use is growing at the expense of video games.

The average Briton now spends 50 hours per week on the phone, using the net, watching TV or listening to the radio. However, the mix of how much time is spent on each one has changed radically over the last few years.

Daily mobile phone use is up 58% on 2002 and, over the same period, net use has grown 158%. By contrast Britons spend far less time watching TV, listening to the radio or chatting on a fixed line phone.

The report revealed big differences in the technologies that different sectors of the population prefer.

For instance, among Britons aged 25-34, women account for 55% of the time this group spends online, said the report.

The 16% of the over-65s that use the web spend 42 hours per month online - more than any other age group.

Children are in the vanguard of the move to make more of new media. The report said that 75% of 11 year olds have their own TV, games console and mobile phone." - BBC News Online.

Podcast Figures Rise With Digital Radio

BBC News reports extensively on the growing numbers of people using digital and online sources to access their radio output, with the number of podcast listeners up from 1.9m to 2.7m.

Rajar the industry analysts say that radio listenership as a whole is up, with 91% of the UK population listening. Mobile usage is also up by 27% since the end of 2006. Commercial radio has its highest listening figures for four years with a regular audience of 32m, and the BBC's digital-only radio networks, including 6 Music and 1Xtra, now have a combined listenership of 3m people.

New UK Video Podcast Channel To Launch

Wil Harris, known widely as the UK tech writer who also co-hosts of Leo Laporte's weekly podcast This Week In Tech (TWiT) is to launch a new video podcast channel in September 2007, called Channel Flip.

The network will focus on the 18-35 male demographic with shows covering technology, video games, indie music, DVD releases, skateboarding and men's fashion.

Channel Flip shows will be offered via a combination of online (one platform named was Blip.tv) and downloadable formats. The hosts are all British, but Harris says this venture isn't meant to be UK-specific in any way. After the initial launch, Channel Flip's plans include launching shows covering fitness, food, and digital photography. - Wired.