Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of people have access to digital media in (a) York and (b) North Yorkshire who are aged (i) between 60-69, (ii) between 70-79 and (iii) 80 and over.

Ofcom produces its Media Nations report which reviews key trends in the media sector and sets out how audiences are served across, and in different parts of, the UK. It considers trends from a cross-platform perspective, including broadcast TV and radio, as well as digital delivery including online video and audio streaming. The most recent report was published in August 2022 and can be found here.

Ofcom also publishes the results of a number of annual surveys addressing these issues, as well as an interactive dataset in the form of its annual Communications Market Report. Many of these publications include relevant analysis broken down by age group and/or geographic area. Ofcom’s interest covers all audiences and they are committed to ensuring variations, whether by geographic area, economic circumstance or digital skill set, are captured in their research programme and regulatory activity.

My Department also commissions and publishes its own research on a range of topics, including in relation to radio and TV. For example, in February 2020, the Government commissioned the Digital Radio and Audio Review, which looked at the landscape for radio over the coming years, including research on future trends in radio and audio listening. The Review found, for example, that “smart speakers, which emerged only five years ago, are owned or accessed by a third of all adults, and account for 6% of all audio consumption”. It estimated that analogue radio listening estimates would account for just 12%-14% of listening by 2030, but that traditional radio, including FM services, was valued by many listeners – particularly those who were older or vulnerable. Current trends in listening are also available via RAJAR, the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK.

In this context, the Department does not currently intend to commission any further surveys specifically in relation to audience preferences, but keeps its research programme under regular review.