UK media powerhouses take on the world

The UK's traditional media companies are attracting impressive global online audiences, new research suggests.

Visitors originating from outside the UK now outnumber the domestic audience for the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times and The Daily Mail.

ComScore's World Metrix audience measurement service found that The Daily Mail had the highest proportion of international visitors at 69 per cent of its total of 7.6 million visitors.

The BBC attracted 59 per cent of its audience internationally, while The Telegraph and the Guardian Media Group also drew more than half their audiences from outside the UK, at 57 per cent and 56 per cent respectively.

Only two of the 10 sites studied, BSkyB and ITV Sites, had less than a quarter of their traffic originating internationally.

"In recent years, UK media companies have been able to acquire significant international audiences by leveraging their brands online," said Bob Ivins, executive vice president for European markets at comScore.

"The internet is a truly global medium, allowing consumers to access content from anywhere in the world. It is critical that publishers and advertisers understand their global franchise and not just their UK audience."

ComScore's World Metrix also found that several UK TV news media brands experienced online growth during the past year.

BBC Sites, the largest property in the study, gained five per cent versus year ago to reach nearly 46 million worldwide unique visitors in November 2007.

ITV Sites grew 37 per cent to 7.7 million, and Channel 4 increased 28 per cent to 5.2 million.

There were also significant increases in traffic to a number of online newspaper sites, including Dailymail.co.uk (up 153 per cent to 7.6 million visitors) and Telegraph Group Ltd (up 129 per cent to 6.2 million).