comScore, Inc. released an overview of mobile news access across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) using the comScore MobiLens service. The study showed that nearly 37 percent of smartphone users in EU5 reported accessing news sites via an app or browser in January 2012, showing an increase of 74 percent over the past year. For EU5 smartphone users who accessed news sites on a near-daily basis, the growth rate was even stronger at 82 percent. The UK showed the highest penetration with nearly half (46.8 percent) of smartphone users reporting having accessed news sites at least once in the past month.

“The continued growth in smartphone adoption in Europe has fuelled the increasing consumption of news and information on-the-go,” said Hesham Al-Jehani, comScore Europe product manager for Mobile. “Today’s mobile consumer wants to be plugged into what’s happening around them every second of the day, and their smartphones are enabling them to do that. This rapidly changing trend brings with it significant incremental opportunity for news publishers to extend their audiences, but also the challenges of delivering their content effectively through the small screen.”

Spain Shows Highest Growth in Smartphone News Audience

In EU5, smartphone users accessing news sites via an app or browser at least once a month increased 74 percent to 39.5 million during the three month average ending January 2012. The near-daily smartphone news audience showed an even stronger increase of 82 percent (12.7 million) during the same time period. The Spanish smartphone audience reported the strongest gains in this behaviour in the past year with a 127 percent increase in monthly news access and a 160 percent increase in near-daily news access.



More than 1 in 3 EU5 Smartphone Users Access News Sites Monthly

In the three month average ending January 2012, 39.5 million EU5 smartphone users accessed news sites via an app or browser on a monthly basis, representing 36.9 percent of the total EU5 smartphone audience. The UK showed the highest penetration for mobile news access for all usage frequencies, with 46.8 percent of its smartphone audience accessing news at least once monthly and 15.8 percent accessing news almost every day.



January 2012 EU5 Mobile Benchmark Data

The table below shows comScore’s January 2012 mobile benchmark data, including a review of mobile consumption behaviours and device penetration for the five European countries under measurement. These benchmarks are published by comScore to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of the mobile industry. Further information on these benchmarks, and other data included above, can be provided upon request.