Four percent of British have read an e-book
26.10.09 Graeme Neill in The Bokseller

Four percent of British people have read an e-book in the past month but the majority of them spent nothing on the title, according to a new survey.
In a KPMG-commissioned YouGov survey of just over 1,000 consumers, it discovered of those who read a digital book, 70% of them spent nothing accessing their digital reads. Nineteen percent spent up to £5 and 7% spent between £5-£25.

The survey also found that 68% of respondents said they had read a traditional book in the last month, 39% of us spent up to £10 on books last month and 13% spent between £10-£25.

David Elms, head of media at KPMG, said: "Digitalisation is impacting on all sectors of the media industry and since the advent of e-readers the humble book is next in line. The publishing sector will have to move fast—particularly on piracy, product and pricing—if they are not to suffer thesame fate that befell the record labels.
"Our [survey] shows that there is already a digital books market and as more devices come on to the market and more titles are released in electronic form, this could grow rapidly. E-readers are gathering momentum, not only due to the new technology but also the choice of content they offer . . .
"The potential is vast and if e-readers can get the user experience and pricing right, as MP3 players did with digital music, our Christmas stocking reading material could look a little different this year."