Print media still rules

To charge or not to charge for online content has become an endless story. Of course, we as consumers don't want to end up with more bills to pay besides essentials such as Dewa or etisalat. For publishers still thinking of earning an income by charging for online content, the results may not be very encouraging according to a new study.

The Media and Entertainment Barometer study, conducted by YouGov, England, which interviewed more than 4,000 individuals aged 16 or older during three periods between September 2009 and 2010, says just 2 per cent of respondents would be prepared to pay for unrestricted access to a website they use regularly. If a subscription barrier was introduced, 79 per cent said they would go elsewhere.

According to the study, 13 per cent of respondents had paid for content online. Among these, music is the most commonly paid for (23 per cent) followed by online gaming (21 per cent), while business news and analysis, online newspapers and magazines, and TV make up 19 per cent.

Smartphones and the tablets are a force that drives users to pay for digital content. The study said that 27 per cent of participants have smartphones and 35 per cent paid for apps in the last 12 months.

"Whilst the appetite to pay for web content is moving slowly, the pace of spending money on downloading content on mobile devices is moving much more quickly, particularly in the crucial 18 to 34 age group demographics," says David Elms, head of media sector for KPMG, in a release.

The good news for the print media according to the research is that 86 per cent of consumers said they preferred to consume media offline rather than online. The most popular reason was a preference to reading physical copies.