Over 20% of McDonalds sales in the UK in Q4 2020 were delivery sales

 "The only thing I'd add John is, as Chris mentioned, obviously we're seeing both digital and delivery growing significantly in those IOM markets. In the U.K., for example, over 20% of their sales in Q4 were delivery sales. So, we are seeing some significant growth both in delivery and digital."

Source:  Extract from the McDonalds earnings call, reported by The Motley Fool, 28th January 2021

Over 10% of songs streamed around the world are by British artists

 "A new analysis from record labels association the BPI reveals that 1 in every 10 songs (10.1%) streamed around the world is by a British artist. The UK’s share of global streaming is four times greater than its share of global GDP (2.2%)1, underlining the UK’s exceptional performance in music. 

The BPI, which represents over 450 UK-based record labels, carried out the analysis based on the music charts of 14 major music markets2, which together account for around three quarters of global recorded music consumption. The 1 in 10 result highlights the extraordinary global influence of British music. The ease of accessing UK music via streaming services and worldwide promotion by labels means that more British artists are now connecting with more fans to build international careers. Music markets previously out of reach, notably in Asia, South America and Africa, are much more accessible thanks to streaming’s global reach and record labels’ digital marketing. Newly-signed artists can now also expect to have a more immediate international impact than previous generations."

Source:  Press release from the BPI, 31st December 2020

UK adults bought 21m new connected devices during the lockdown

"One in five UK adults (21%) – the equivalent of 10.3 million consumers - purchased at least one new digital device as a result of spending more time at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic according to Deloitte’s Digital Consumer Trends 2020 report. In total, up to 21.2 million digital devices were purchased during the first two months of the lockdown period, including two million printers and monitors.

Deloitte’s research, carried out in May 2020 and surveying the digital habits of 4,150 respondents between the ages of 16 and 75, found that UK adults used 170.3 million devices* daily during the first two months of lockdown, equating to 3.5 devices on average per person.

Games consoles, laptops, smart speakers and eReaders saw the highest uptick in usage. Among those who own the devices, daily usage of games consoles rose by 10 percentage-points, with 44% of owners using their console daily, up from 34% in 2019. Meanwhile, daily smart speaker usage rose from 59% to 66%; laptop usage rose from 67% to 73%; and eReader usage rose from 30% to 34%.

Fitness bands and smart watches both experienced a decline in usage as consumers spent more time at home as a result of the pandemic. 60% of fitness band owners used their device daily during the lockdown period, down from 64% in 2019, while daily smart watch usage declined from 64% to 62%. This comes despite an overall increase in the adoption of wearables, from 27% to 31% in the last year."

Source:  Data from Deloitte, reported by Cambridge Wireless, 25th August 2020

More data here 

Adults in the UK watched more than 6 hours of video content a day during lockdown

Source:  Ofcom's Media Nations 2020 report, 5th August 2020

Full presentation here

The US was the top spending market for AVOD in 2019

Top five countries by AVoD expenditure ($ million)
Ranking Country 2019
1 USA 7,998
2 China 6,777
3 United Kingdom 1,620
4 Japan 1,611 4
5 India 632 5

Source:  Digital TV Research, quoted in Advanced Television, 1st June 2020

Digital ad expenditure in Europe reached €64,8bn in 2019

"IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, announced at its virtual Interact conference today that digital advertising grew 12.3 percent in 2019 to €64.8bn, driven by strong growth in out-stream video, mobile and social spend. On average €4bn has been added to the digital advertising market every year since 2006.
2020 Digital Advertising Forecast
Given the impact that COVID-19 that had on the industry’s operations and investments, the 2019 results were accompanied by a 2020 forecast for digital investment by IAB Europe’s Chief Economist Dr. Daniel Knapp. In its April 2020 forecast, the IMF predicted that Covid-19 and the global lockdown will spark the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Knapp modelled his forecasts on macroeconomic indicators, paired with industry data to estimate a decline of 16.3% for Europe (including the UK). However, Knapp highlighted that digital is looking to be the least affected advertising media, predicting a decline by -5.5% in 2020 in Europe compared to a stronger contraction (-21.3%) for other media.
2019 Digital Advertising Investment
The AdEx Benchmark study is the definitive guide to advertising expenditure in Europe, covering 28 markets, and is now in its fourteenth year. In 2019, a total of twenty-one markets experienced double-digit year-on-year growth.
Video grew by nearly 30 percent to almost €10bn; out-stream was the driving force behind this growth with an increase of 36 percent. In some markets out-stream experienced growth of more than 40 percent, for example Finland, Greece and the UK.
Social is fueling display growth across Europe, up 25.6 percent year-on-year with double-digit growth in all twenty-eight markets. Search remains the largest online advertising category in terms of revenue with a growth of 11.8 percent and a market value of €28bn. Total mobile ad spend grew by 24.9 percent in 2019 to exceed €30bn to account for nearly half (47 percent) of all digital ad spend in Europe.
[...]
The IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark study divides the digital ad market into three categories: Display, Search and Classifieds and Directories. Growth in these advertising formats has been underpinned by shifting uses in devices and changing consumption patterns.
[...]
CEE continues to dominate the growth in Europe and in 2019, as in 2018. The top five largest growth markets all came from the CEE region:
Serbia – 28.4 percent
Ukraine – 28.0 percent
Belarus – 25.2 percent
Croatia – 22.3 percent
Turkey– 19.1 percent

Top 10 rankings (by market size) are:
UK – €21.4bn
Germany – €9.4bn
France – €6.1bn
Russia – €4.9bn
Italy – €3.2bn
Spain – €3.2bn
Sweden – €2.3bn
Netherlands – €2.3bn
Switzerland – €1.8bn
Norway – €1.3bn"
Source:  Press release from IAB Europe, 3rd June 2020
Download the 25 page presentation here

42% of UK households with Samsung smart TVs watch 2 hours or less of linear TV a month

"The stats are these: 28% of Samsung smart TV households in the UK watch less than 2 hours of linear TV a month; and 14% watch none at all. All told then, 42% are light — very light — linear viewers.
Now the first caveat is that Samsung smart TV households are not representative of the nation as a whole. But there are 5m of them, and 44m across Europe. According to Ofcom, smart TV penetration in 2019 was 47%, and probably over 50% now. It’s unlikely that viewing habits in other smart TV households will vary much."
Source:  Presentation by Andy Jones of Samsung Ads, reported by MediaTel, 4th May 2020

More than a million people are watching Joe Wicks' YouTube workouts

"A YouTube workout by the online fitness guru Joe Wicks has been livestreamed by more than a million people, as parents turn to alternative teaching methods to cope with their children not being able to attend school during the coronavirus outbreak.
Wicks, who was due to start a tour of schools to promote fitness and healthy living this week, decided to livestream a daily workout instead, saying he wanted to become “the PE teacher for the nation” as the coronavirus forces more children indoors.
The former personal trainer said he had “never seen anything like” the support his workout received on Facebook, where it was shared more than 150,000 times, with support from school teachers who directed students to the stream as an alternative to PE lessons. Some schools also included links to the workout in home curriculum documents emailed to parents."

Source:  The Guardian, 23rd March 2020

Boris Johnson's Covid-19 Lockdown Broadcast was watched live by 27m people

"Boris Johnson’s address to the nation ordering Britons to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic was one of the most-watched broadcasts in UK television history, with more than 27 million Britons tuning in live to watch him announce the historic lockdown of the country.
This puts the pre-recorded broadcast in the top tier of most-watched British television programmes ever, up with the likes of the 1966 World Cup final and the funeral of Princess Diana, making clear the historic importance of the occasion as the country collectively watched the prime minister give the latest coronavirus guidance.
The overnight viewing figures do not include the millions of Britons who watched the broadcast on internet livestreams through news apps and websites, or those who watched it through catch-up services, meaning the real audience is likely to have been substantially higher."
Source:  The Guardian, 24th March 2020

Note - It was shown simultaneously on several major channels

51% of UK households have at least one paid video on demand subscription

"The proportion of UK homes with a subscription to at least one of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or NOW TV passed 50 per cent for the first time in Q4 2019, standing at 50.5 per cent.
27 million UK homes access at least one of these services, a quarter-on-quarter increase of almost 600,000 homes (4.4 per cent) since Q3 2019.
Netflix remains the largest service with 12.35 million homes subscribed, a year-on-year growth of almost 20 per cent.
Amazon Prime Video is the fastest growing service year-on-year, increasing by just over 35 per cent versus Q4 2018 to 7.14 million homes.
NOW TV saw almost 8 per cent year-on-year growth, bringing it to 1.69 million UK homes in Q4 2019 (although it experienced an 8 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop from 1.84 million in Q3 2019).
In Q4 2019, 6.03 million UK homes (21 per cent of homes) subscribed to two or more SVoD services, up 1.72 million year-on-year."
Source:  Advanced Television, 20th February 2020

48% of UK residents did not take an overseas flight in the last year

"Just 1% of English residents are responsible for nearly a fifth of all flights abroad, according to previously unpublished statistics.
The figures, published in a Department for Transport survey, also reveal that the 10% most frequent flyers in England took more than half of all international flights in 2018. However, 48% of the population did not take a single flight abroad in the last year.
The new findings bolster calls for a frequent flyer levy, a proposal under which each citizen would be allowed one tax-free flight per year but would pay progressively higher taxes on each additional flight taken."
Source:  The Guardian, 25th September 2019

TripAdvisor's share of UK hospitality reviews fell from 34% to 25% in one year

"Feed It Back’s latest social review tracker reveals a significant drop in TripAdvisor usage, with its market share falling from 33.9% in August 2018, to 25.1% in August 2019.
The data, taken from thousands of reviews left of the restaurant, pub and bar and quick service industries, shows that, over the same period, Facebook experienced a positive year-on-year increase, of 3.1%, with the platform now accounting for 10.3% of reviews.
Google remains the biggest player in the industry, with its percentage of reviews in August sitting at 64.3%.
The rise in prevalence of Facebook and the decrease in TripAdvisor usage has impacted the average social review score in the industry, which has risen from 4.0 out of 5 in August 2018, to 4.3 in 2019.
This increase has been driven by a spike in review scores across all platforms over the past year, with Facebook rising from 3.9 out of 5, to 4.1 over the same period. TripAdvisor grew from 3.9 to 4.1, and Google increased from 4.1 to 4.3.
Looking at the split between the sectors, the average social review score for the pub and bar industry rose from 4.1 to 4.3; while the restaurant industry increased from 4.0 to 4.3.
The main driver behind the spike in positive reviews for both sectors was the Facebook channel, where the average review score for restaurants rose from 4.0 to 4.6 out of 5, while pubs and bars experienced an increase from 4.4 to 4.6."

Source:  Data from Feed Itr Back, reported in a press release, 2nd September 2019

The Boycott of The Sun in Merseyside 'has led to lower levels of Euroscepticism'

"The report, authored by London School of Economics behavioural political scientist Florian Foos and Zurich University’s Daniel Bischof, says the long-standing Sun boycott lowered Euroscepticism among the “unskilled” working class who “made up a large share of Sun readers before the disaster”.
The report said “attitudes towards the EU got significantly more positive in Merseyside during the boycott”.
Liverpool, The Wirral and Sefton in Merseyside all voted Remain.
The study, which used data from the annual British Social Attitudes survey and is available online, added: “…the boycott of the most important Eurosceptic newspaper – The Sun in Merseyside as a consequence of The Sun’s reporting on the Hillsborough sporting disaster – led to a decrease of Euroscepticism in Merseyside, which we estimate to amount to around 11 percentage points.
“Moreover, our results suggest that The Sun boycott in Merseyside might have decreased the Leave vote share in Merseyside in the 2016 EU referendum.”
The authors said the study showed “sustained media campaigns on emerging issues can have large, lasting, and ultimately, consequential effects on public opinion, and public policy”."
Source:  Press Gazette, 27th August 2019

Addressable TV advertising is more engaging and more effective

"To understand the impact of addressable TV on both consumer viewing and ad engagement, Sky Media partnered with BVA BDRC, Differentology and Affectiva to measure the impact of addressable TV campaigns using AdSmart. The extensive study included ground-breaking facial coding and emotional analytics. Findings are based on more than 130 campaign effectiveness projects, in which 300,000 Sky subscribers were interviewed. The research reveals:
Addressable drives ad engagement. Facial recognition analysis revealed that when addressable ads are on TV, viewers’ attentiveness to the screen can be as a third higher (35%) and on average 21% more engaged.
Addressable cuts channel switching during ads. An analysis using 52,000 ad breaks showed that channel switching was halved (reducing by 48%) when addressable ads were in the first three positions of a break, compared to standard linear TV ads.
Addressable increases spontaneous ad recall. Viewers of addressable TV ads are 10% more likely to spontaneously recall an ad compared to linear TV advertising.
Addressable is amplified when combined with linear. Combining linear with addressable TV advertising increases ad awareness by nearly a quarter (22%). When the frequency of addressable ads is equal or higher to linear exposure ad recall is boosted by half (49%).
Addressable works. Higher engagement and relevance have clear business results, increasing purchase intent by 7% overall and by as much as 20% for new to Tv advertisers who benefit more from the exposure and credibility TV delivers.
Tangible business results for new to TV brands. Local brands like Gasway (35%) and Richardson’s Garden Centre (17%) among 100s of businesses seeing significant business growth through the use of addressable TV advertising."
Source:  Data from Sky, reported in a press release, 15th August 2019

4.7m people in the UK work in the gig economy

"Last month, new data on the U.K.’s gig economy surfaced from the University of Hertfordshire, concluding that the number of gig workers in Britain has more than doubled in the last three years, now reaching 4.7 million professionals.
Experts say the explosion of technology platforms like Uber and Deliveroo ushered in waves of opportunity for professionals to have greater control over when, where and how they work. The U.K.’s Trades Union Congress, however, sees this surge in gig workers from a different angle."
Source:  PYMNTS, 1st August 2019

8.3m people in the UK watched England win the Cricket World Cup

"Sky and Channel 4’s shared FTA coverage of the Cricket World Cup final on July 14th – which saw England beat New Zealand in the competition’s first ever ‘super over’ – drew a combined TV audience of 8.3 million.
Sky’s Chief Executive UK and Ireland Stephen van Rooyen said: “Congratulations to England and everyone who has been part of the journey at the ECB. The ICC put on a terrific tournament. We’ve been proud host broadcasters of a home cricket World Cup, dedicating a channel and showing every single minute, which has been absorbing from the first ball to the unforgettable final delivery. Sunday saw a peak across Sky and Channel 4 of 8.3 million – a huge audience for a huge moment for British sport. On Sky’s channels our peak was 3.5 million alone, a fitting way to cap a terrific tournament.”"
Source:  Advanced Television, 15th July 2019

"2018/19 saw the steepest year-on-year drop in the amount of broadcast TV watched by under 35s [in the UK] on the TV set"

"Changes in how people consume media continue to be rapid and profound, especially so among younger audiences.
2018/19 saw the steepest year-on-year drop in the amount of broadcast TV watched by under 35s on the TV set – down around two hours per week in a year to ten-and-a-half hours. By contrast, the time they spent using the TV set for purposes that include SVOD, YouTube and gaming increased again – up an hour a week to eight hours weekly. Music streaming by young adults also rose by around an hour a week to almost six hours weekly. Around the same proportion of under 16s now use YouTube each week as use the BBC (81%).
While these changes have so far affected young audiences the most, increasingly they impact the media behaviours of older audiences. For example, in 2018/19 more than half of over 35s used the TV set for purposes such as SVOD, YouTube and gaming and one in six used music streaming services each week.
Within this changing landscape, the time people spend with the BBC is trending downward year-on-year for both BBC TV and BBC Radio. The BBC is still the media provider that UK adults overall use the most, and audience performance for the year was within the target range set out in the 2018/19 BBC Annual Plan*.
91% of online adults used the BBC each week in 2018/19, in line with the target of 88-93%. UK adults spent 18 hours on average per week consuming BBC services, down on the year but within the target range of 17:15-18:45. They rated the BBC at seven out of ten, on average, in terms of their general impression, scored the quality of programmes and services at seven out of ten and value for money at five out of ten, all within target."
Source:  BBC Annual Report, July 2019

Digital ad spend across Europe grew to €55bn in 2018

"IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem, announced at its annual Interact conference today in Warsaw that digital advertising grew 13.9 percent in 2018 to €55.1bn, driven by strong growth in video, mobile and social spend. This is the fastest growth since 2011 and has seen the market more than double in size since 2012.
The AdEx Benchmark study is the definitive guide to the state of the European digital advertising market, covering 28 markets, and is now in its thirteenth year. In 2018, a total of twenty-one markets saw double-digit year-on-year growth
Out-stream video and mobile both dominated results in 2018, as they both grew by double-digits in all twenty-eight markets in the study. Out-stream video grew by 44.7 percent on average, compared to in-stream at 19.7 percent. Overall, video grew by 30.9 percent, to €7.6bn, accounting for 33 percent of the display market.
Search remains the largest online advertising category in terms of revenue with a growth of 12.5 percent and a market value of €25bn.
Social is fueling display growth across Europe, growing 33.7 percent year-on-year and now accounts for 49 percent of display.
Total mobile ad spend grew by 31.4 percent in 2018, to €22.8bn, and now accounts for 41 percent of all digital ad spend across Europe.
[...]
The IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark study divides the digital ad market into three categories: Display, Search and Classifieds and Directories. Growth in these advertising formats has been underpinned by shifting uses in devices and changing consumption patterns. In 2018, Display has closed the gap with Search, growing by 17.5 percent to account for 42.2 percent of all spend.
[...]
In 2018, the top five largest growth markets all came from the CEE region:
Ukraine – 26.9 percent
Russia – 24.9 percent
Belarus – 23.6 percent
Czech Republic – 20.9 percent
Serbia – 20.1 percent
Norway entered the top 10 in 2018, with further gains by Spain and Sweden.
Top 10 rankings (by market size)
UK – €18.4bn
Germany – €7.2bn
France – €5.2bn
Russia – €4.1bn
Italy – €2.9bn
Netherlands – €2.2bn
Spain – €2.2bn
Sweden – €2.1bn
Switzerland – €2.0bn
Norway – €1.1bn"

Source:  Press release from IAB Europe, 4th June 2019

Over 400,000 homes 'cut the cord' in the UK in 2018

"Declining pay-TV subscriptions in the UK suggest that cord-cutting, which is well established in the US, is now beginning to affect the European market, according to findings from research firm Strategy Analytics.
Its report, European Pay TV Index, found that the UK saw a net decline in pay-TV households of 424,000 in 2018, the largest decline of any European country. Other countries with falling subscriptions include Denmark, Switzerland and Germany, although the rates of decline are less significant."
Source:  Advanced Television, 26th April 2019

Mobile accounted for 51% of UK digital ad spend in 2018

"IAB UK, the trade association for digital advertising, has today announced the results of the latest IAB UK and PwC Digital Adspend study, which reveals UK advertisers spent £13.44billion on digital advertising in 2018.
The total ad spend figure is a 15 percent year-on-year increase and demonstrates continued confidence in the power of digital advertising.
For the first time ever, ad spend on smartphones has exceeded desktop accounting for 51 percent of the total spend, up from 45 percent in 2017. This is a year-on-year increase of £1.65bn.
These latest figures show that advertising spend now better reflects consumer behaviour, with recent UKOM audience data showing that people spend two thirds of their online time on smartphone1.
Beyond mobile, an additional driver of growth continues to be video, which accounts for 44 percent of the total display market. For the second year running, outstream (which includes social in-feed video) has exceeded pre-roll video2, accounting for 57 percent of all video advertising."
Source:  Press release from IAB UK, using data from the IAB & PwC, 24th April 2019