Yes I am from the UK and you are right buybacks aren't that big here yet. There is a reason why there would be a movement into more dividend chasing, the negative return from the low fed base rate interest. I anticipated this negative return from base rate linked investments would cause a migration of money into the high dividend paying companies, which in turn would push their share prices up. This would have given investors the opportunity to turn a profit from the new investment and the share price increase it would generate. The article put this cause for an increase in share prices and explained the opportunity for speculation.