News Consumption Now is an Indirect Concern for More Telcos

Until the past couple of decades, changing trends in news consumption would have had tangential, if any relevance, for telcos and mobile service providers. That began to change when telcos became video entertainment service providers, making TV news consumption at least a minor point of interest.

To the extent that consumers shift news consumption from print to television, that indirectly drives demand for video subscriptions.

Over the past couple of years, a shift to online consumption of news began to be more important, at least to an indirect extent, first as PC consumption created needs for broadband access, and more recently as "on the go" consumption has become an indirect driver of smart phone and mobile data service plans.

The percentage of Americans saying they saw news or news headlines on a social networking site "yesterday" has doubled from nine percent to 19 percent since 2010, for example. 

Among adults younger than age 30, as many saw news on a social networking site the previous day (33 percent) as saw any television news (34 percent), with just 13 percent having read a newspaper either in print or digital form, the Pew Research Center says. 

For an Internet access provider, that is indirectly of interest since such habits drive sales of fixed network and mobile Internet access, as well as use of public Wi-Fi hotspots. 

The proportion of Americans who get news online at least three days a week has leveled off, after a period of dramatic growth, though. 

Currently, 46 percent say they get news online or on a mobile phone or device at least three days a week, unchanged from 2010. About a third (32 percent) of the public gets news online every day, the Pew Center says.