We asked respondents to tell us about the sources they used for news. Our questions broke this down into different types of television, radio, print, and online news, so we could understand the full granularity and complexity. In an online context, for example, it is useful to be able to distinguish between the websites of traditional media outlets, aggregators, social media, and blogs. We can then aggregate these sources back together to get a picture of the overall platform balance between TV, radio, print, and online for the respondents to this online survey across all of our countries.
Platforms used to access news on a weekly basis (Frequency)
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| UK | Ger | Spa | Ita | Fra | Den | US | Bra | Jap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV | 79% | 82% | 72% | 74% | 84% | 85% | 72% | 75% | 69% |
| Radio | 37% | 51% | 39% | 34% | 44% | 53% | 28% | 19% | 24% |
| 59% | 63% | 61% | 59% | 48% | 49% | 47% | 50% | 63% | |
| Online | 74% | 66% | 79% | 80% | 68% | 81% | 75% | 90% | 85% |
Q3: Which, if any, of the following have you used in the last week as a source of news?
Base: All markets UK (n=2078) US (n=2028) Spain (n=979) Japan (n=978) Italy (n=965) Germany (n=1062) France (n=973) Denmark (n=1007) Urban Brazil (n=985)
France and Germany have the lowest levels of online news access, with both countries showing strong allegiance to traditional news platforms.
Online and television news remain the two most frequently accessed platforms for news among our online survey respondents in all our countries. Online is furthest ahead in Japan and with our urban sample in Brazil. When taking into account those who are offline (56% in Brazil and 42% in Italy, for example), television news is likely to be ahead pretty much everywhere.
We also asked respondents about their MAIN or most important source of news. Here we see a similar story. Television and online are the two platforms that our respondents value or rely on most. Once again Germany and France show themselves with a strong preference for TV over online, with Brazil and Japan narrowly preferring online.
MAIN news platform by country
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| UK | Ger | Spa | Ita | Fra | Den | US | Bra | Jap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV | 41% | 43% | 33% | 39% | 57% | 44% | 43% | 38% | 35% |
| Radio | 7% | 13% | 9% | 5% | 12% | 8% | 5% | 2% | 4% |
| 15% | 18% | 15% | 13% | 6% | 11% | 9% | 6% | 20% | |
| Online | 35% | 25% | 41% | 42% | 23% | 35% | 39% | 53% | 39% |
Q4: You say you’ve used these sources of news in the last week, which would you say is MOST IMPORTANT or which would you say is your main news?
Base: All markets UK (n=2078) US (n=2028) Spain (n=979) Japan (n=978) Italy (n=965) Germany (n=1062) France (n=973) Denmark (n=1007) Urban Brazil (n=985)
However, the picture changes when we look at the importance assigned by different age groups. Looking at ALL our countries together, we can see that there is a significant divide developing between the under 35s who prefer online and those aged over 45 who strongly prefer television.
Main news platform by age (Online vs Television) – ALL countries
Q4: You say you’ve used these sources of news in the last week, which would you say is your MAIN source of news?
Base: All who have used news sources in the last week (n=10843)
All countries follow this pattern with the exception of France, where young people still show a strong loyalty to television news and have not embraced internet news in a significant way.
Main platform for news by age: France
Q4: You say you’ve used these sources of news in the last week, which would you say is your MAIN source of news?
Base: All who have used news sources in the last week France (n=963), US (n=1916)
Main platform for news by age: United States
Q4: You say you’ve used these sources of news in the last week, which would you say is your MAIN source of news?
Base: All who have used news sources in the last week France (n=963), US (n=1916)
Watch a range of views on the relevance of printed newspapers
We can also see the impact of age when we look at UK data showing the time people spend on different devices. Not only do the young value online news more than TV, they also spend more time with computers – along with considerable amounts of additional time on smartphones and tablets. Older groups spend far more time with traditional media, such as TV news, radio news, and print.
Mean time spent accessing news by device per day UK (minutes)
Traditional forms of accessing news are more popular among older age groups
QS1: On a typical day, how much time do you spend accessing news on EACH of the following?
Base All UK=2078
Chart shows mean time spent per day in minutes