NINE in ten adults in the UK (89 per cent) say that they follow news, with TV by far the most-used platform for news, with 67 per cent of UK adults saying they use TV as a source of news.
However, according to figures released by broadcasting regulators, Ofcom, there has been an eight percentage point decrease since 2014 (75 per cent), following a three percentage point decrease between 2013 (78 per cent) and 2014.
And among the other findings:
* The number of people who use the internet or apps for news has remained the same since 2014, with just over four in ten (41 per cent) doing so, compared to just under a third in 2013 (32 per cent).
* Newspapers are used by three in ten (31 per cent), which represents a decrease of nine percentage points since 2014 and 2013 (when 40 per cent of UK adults said they used newspapers for news).
* There has also been a decrease in those that say they use radio as a source of news (from 36 per cent in 2014 to 32 per cent in 2015).
* One in ten (ten per cent) of adults say they don’t follow news, compared to five per cent in 2014 and seven per cent in 2013.
* Those aged 55+ are more likely than those aged 16-24 to use TV, newspapers and radio for news consumption, while the opposite is true for the internet/ apps.
* Around half (51 per cent) of people aged 16-24 use TV for news, compared to 86 per cent of those aged 55+. A similar pattern can be seen for consumption of news through newspapers (21 per cent of 16-24s vs. 44 per cent aged 55+) and through radio (23 per cent vs. 37 per cent). Conversely, consumption of news online through any device is considerably higher for those aged 16-24 (59 per cent) than for over-55s (23 per cent) (figure 1.3).
* Men are more likely than women to use any of the four main platforms for news (TV, internet, newspapers and radio). Seven in ten (69 per cent) men use TV for news, compared to 65 per cent of women. The same is true for the internet (45 per cent vs. 37 per cent), newspapers (34 per cent vs. 27 per cent) and radio (35 per cent vs. 29 per cent).
* People in the AB socio-economic group are more likely than those in the DE socio-economic group to consume news on any of the four main platforms: TV (71 per cent vs 67 per cent), the internet (50 per cent vs. 29 per cent), newspapers (38 per cent vs. 26 per cent) and radio (46 per cent vs. 23 per cent).
* Of the four main platforms, three in ten (31 per cent) respondents use only one platform for news, with just under two in ten (19 per cent) using only the TV alone, 11 per cent using only the internet, three per cent.
Source: ‘News consumption in the UK, 2015‘, published by Ofcom, December 16 2015.
