Survey: Broadband named as ‘best-value entertainment service’

People use their broadband connections for a wide range of uses: for video conferencing and meetings, for communicating with other people, and for streaming movies, shows, and music. This spans from business to personal communications to entertainment. Many people make use of broadband for online gaming by connecting to subscription gaming services such as OnLive. Users are also turning to digital television instead of watching regular cable TV, with pay-TV services like BT Vision rising in popularity over the past few quarters as well.

Perhaps to emphasise broadband in entertainment, a survey has found that respondents have named broadband as the “best-value entertainment service” available. This study was commissioned by broadband service provider Virgin Media.

In the survey, consumers responded that they believed broadband offered the best entertainment service for the amount paid for it. The Entertainment Spending survey was conducted by ICM. Aside from that, the survey found that Internet connections had the potential to “pay for themselves,” as ninety percent of respondents claimed that they were able to save money elsewhere by instead searching for products and services online.

These users also mentioned various Internet tools and services that allowed them to save them money. Sixty-four percent of respondents said that comparison sites helped them save a lot of pounds, with a close sixty-three percent saying that shopping online resulted in a lot of savings. Another fifty percent said that auction sites were a big help as well. Many of these respondents chose online news sources instead of buying newspapers, as they could access similar news stories free of charge.

Professor at Lancaster University Michael Hulme commented on these results, saying: “Using price comparison sites, shopping online or even taking fewer physical trips and saving on travel costs mean that, through such savings, in effect entertainment services such as broadband effectively pay for themselves.”