Europeans with broadband internet access are more willing to pay for online content than their dial-up counterparts, according to a new study from Jupiter Research.
The poll of 10,000 surfers across Europe found that broadband’s high-speed connections and ‘always on’ nature are slowly encouraging users to buy music, games and other web content. As a result, consumers with such access are more likely to pay for these services than those with narrowband web connections.
Nevertheless, charging for content is still relatively unpopular. Around 41% of respondents said they refused to pay, though this is down from the 47% recorded last year.
Portals and ISPs are now shifting towards a paid-content model, according to Jupiter analyst Olivier Beauvillain: “It’s still important for AOL, MSN, BT Group and Deutsche Telekom to have a solid [visitor] base,” he commented, “but they are now being evaluated on revenues generated online and people no longer care so much about page views.”
Beauvillain added that European operators need to improve the way their content is packaged and marketed.
Data sourced from: Financial Times; additional content by WARC staff
