Ofcom released its third review of public service broadcasting on 15 December, focusing on "Public Service Content in a Connected Society". Enders Analysis assessed how online media services contributed to the provision of public service content over the course of the review period (2008-2013). This report represents a summary and key themes of our findings.

Relevant media content is now available over the internet from a huge number of sources. As well as affecting how media content is distributed and consumed, the internet is changing the nature of content available and funding models.

In a few genres, the internet is now ahead of traditional broadcasting, notably those in which interactivity is a major enhancement, such as music and education. In news and current affairs, online services often match television’s output, arguably providing more breadth and depth, though accuracy and impartiality are less assured.

As part of Ofcom’s third review of public service broadcasting, Enders Analysis produced 12 case studies of online media services, examining how they contribute to the public service objectives. The full report and all case studies are available on the Ofcom website.

Here we present three of those case studies: BuzzFeed, Vice, and the phenomenon of YouTube ‘vloggers’ producing content for young people. These represent sources of innovative content unlike that found in traditional media.

The online services we assess attract younger audiences than traditional media, and also have a more flexible approach to monetising those audiences, relying on sponsorship, creative solutions and even events and book deals to capitalise on their brands.

2014 has been a good year for total advertising, which we forecast to grow by 5.5% across the year; display advertising spend is also forecast to grow by over 6% year-on-year. This is largely thanks to a positive economic backdrop, where we have seen a significant rise in consumer expenditure over the last two years

Online advertising spend has been the biggest recipient of growing ad spend, with 20+% growth last year, this year and next. This has mostly been to the detriment of print revenues, where online classified search solutions, amongst other factors like declining circulation, have disrupted print marketplaces

Video has been the largest growth area in internet advertising as online video consumption increases. Up to now online spend has largely been accretive to TV budgets but we are starting to see some advertisers switch to online video spend. However we do not expect TV to suffer in the same way as press

The shift to mobile continues, with the smartphone replacing the laptop as the device with the most users, although the rate of tablet adoption has slowed somewhat.

This shift will change the online revenue mix, with mobile being better suited to content, native and video advertising than traditional display and search. Mobile devices also now account for the majority of visits to retail sites, and more than a third of spend online.

We see large age-based differences across all internet activities, but the split is particularly significant for smartphone adoption and usage, with only a quarter of over-55s using smartphones, and only a third of those reporting downloading apps.

Auto is the third category in our annual series of reports on UK classified advertising, following UK classifieds and recruitment category outlook [2014-094] and Property classified advertising [2014-098]. In this year’s report we analyse the key drivers in the communications marketplace for used cars, notably transaction volumes and pricing. Overall the auto market is relatively buoyant, with the post-recession new car sales boom starting to feed into used car revenues in 2014, although the sustainability of this credit fuelled growth is far from certain. Auto Trader remains the big beast in the marketplace after Guardian Media Group sold its 50.1% stake to Apax Partners earlier this year. Apax will likely be considering an IPO or sale, particularly as market conditions look favourable in 2015 and Auto Trader’s strong leadership position looks largely unchallenged.

Property is the second category in our annual series of reports on UK classified advertising, following UK classifieds overview and recruitment outlook [2014-094] and with autos to follow. Our property market report analyses the key drivers in the communications marketplace for UK domestic property, notably transaction rates and house prices, but also substantial developments in government policy. We analyse the estate agent marketplace and drill down into expenditure patterns for property advertising across all media, and provide five year forecasts. We also look at the online property advertising markets in Australia and the USA to gain a broader perspective on potential developments in the UK. Here, the competitive battle between Rightmove and Zoopla continues; estate agents' plans to stem the duopoly’s pricing power with the launch of a new portal in January will struggle to achieve consumer momentum unless there is a huge marketing investment.

Our annual series of reports on expenditure on advertising in the classified verticals of jobs, property and autos, kicks off with an overview of the print-to-digital transition that lifted the share of digital to over 50% in 2013. In summary, digital consumers are becoming more sophisticated and mobile traffic growth is accelerating. We thus expect classified services to be under pressure to innovate more in the next two to three years, particularly with improved mobile offerings. Zoopla Property Group, Rightmove’s rival in the UK online property duopoly, floated on the LSE in early 2014; both companies retain healthy growth prospects with pricing power stemming from a lack of credible competitors. In contrast, Guardian Media Group announced the sale of its 50.1% stake in Auto Trader to private equity group Apax in January. However, as the used car market starts to recover, the timing could be right in 2015 for Auto Trader to come back to the market in some form.

Our recruitment segment analysis focuses on the UK labour market’s continued improvement in 2014 while the outlook for 2015 and 2016 is still broadly positive. At the same time, the online recruitment market remains highly fragmented. On the advertiser side, the myriad of companies and positions being filled splinters the online market across a number of job boards while aggregator Indeed and professional network LinkedIn continue to grow market share. On the jobseekers side, professionals are increasingly being drawn to LinkedIn. We also see significant potential for category specific professional networks in certain recruitment verticals to continue building audiences and start attracting employer expenditure on recruitment advertising. LinkedIn has emerged as the biggest online supplier in the UK and exercises a degree of pricing power due to its audience scale, although competition remains intense. We project annual growth in online expenditure on recruitment to range between 4-8% to 2017, returning the total recruitment advertising market to low single digit growth as online gains gradually start to outstrip decline in print.

Recently we attended the inaugural IABUK Digital Upfronts, in which 11 digital media companies pitched their wares to advertising agencies and advertisers.

UK growth in internet advertising is now powered by mobile, social and video, and these three areas were the focus of the Upfronts.

The Upfronts are symbolic of the rising importance of digital media in the UK and worldwide; while broadcast television remains the king of brand advertising, marketing and advertising are becoming less TV-centric.

In the last few days we have spoken to key authorities in advertising in the US, UK and Europe.

We have been exploring the critical debate: the degree to which TV consumption and TV advertising are shifting and will shift to digital. Recent media coverage has argued traditional TV business models could start to unravel in the medium term. We disagree.

Apple has fulfilled its promise to roll out innovative new products this year, launching Apple Watch into the nascent wearables market and Apple Pay, a new mobile payments service, as well as moving the iPhone into ‘phablet’ territory.

The larger-screened 6 and 6 Plus should revive growth in iPhone sales and ASP, as well as providing another variable to compete in the mid-tier handset segment; Apple Pay further enhances Apple’s lock on its customer base.

Apple Watch’s likely impact is harder to discern; to date sales of smartwatches have been lacklustre but although Apple’s offering is the most commercially viable yet, it still feels like a solution in need of a problem.