2010: The Web Wins Over TV

A research report by Microsoft (who we must remember has a vested interest in the internet) says that in June 2010 web consumption in 2010 should average 14.2 hours per week compared to 11.5 hours a week for broadcast TV.

Other key findings include:

• Internet use on PCs will drop from 95% today to only 50% over the next 5 years as other web enabled devices such as IPTV, games consoles and mobile phones become more popular

• Online video has established itself as the most popular online entertainment application, with more than 1 in 4 (28%) Europeans watching short or full-length videos – an increase of over 150% since 2006

• The European North/South Divide: Nordic countries have an Internet penetration rate of 76% on average, compared to 45% in southern Europe

• In absolute numbers, Germany (55 million), the UK (42 million), and France (40 million) have the largest online populations in Europe, while Cyprus (325,000), Ireland (2.4 million) and Portugal (4.2 million) rank amongst the countries with the least number of users

• Content (such as news websites and online video) and communication services (such as email and social networks) represent 65% of all time spent online and commerce represents a third (33%) of time spent on the web

I think we have to be careful about waving the web flag too much. Microsoft are right to point out that we’re still going to be using our TVs but maybe less for broadcast and more for web usage (which may include moving image viewing). A detailed report can be found here:

Europe Logs On