Just over three-quarters of readers would not pay for online news sites ‘under any circumstances’ a web poll in Australia, commissioned by B&T, has discovered.

Respondents were asked, ‘If online news sites started charging money for access to their content, would you pay?’ and a resounding 75.4 per cent said they would not.

The figures, from PermissionCorp, come as News Corporation is leading a campaign to start charging for its online content.

Just 14.4 per cent said they would pay, ‘only if the content was worth it’ and a mere 0.96 per cent of the 22,455 respondents selected said, ‘I have no problems being charged for access to content’.

Recent research by Pure Profile in Australia and the UK brought similar responses, with just five per cent of 18,070 saying they would pay for ‘high quality articles’, seven per cent saying they would pay if it had no advertising but 78 per cent refusing to pay for online news at all.