European internet consumption to overtake TV in 14 months

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 08-Apr-09, 12:15

LONDON - The internet will overtake broadcast TV as Europe's most consumed form of media for the first time in June 2010 if current growth trends continue, according to Microsoft research.

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Internet consumption in 2010 will average 14.2 hours per week, or over 2.5 days a month, compared to 11.5 hours a week, or 2 days a month, for TV, claims a report released today by Microsoft entitled 'Europe logs on: Internet trends of today and tomorrow'. It covers Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the UK, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Norway Turkey, Gibraltar, Cyprus and Greece.

The report highlights that while the internet will become the most popular media, this does not signify a decline in TV but simply reflects the changing ways people experience TV content.

It argues that TV is becoming a two-way connected experience delivered via broadband to multiple screens including TV, PC and mobile.

The research shows that for some 18-24 year olds the PC is often the only television screen while for others it can be a second or third screen.

To this generation, TV frequently means video delivered on demand, with one in seven 18-24 year olds now watching no live TV at all.

The report outlines that over the next five years the PC should move from being the completely dominant internet access device (today accounting for 95% of access) to representing just 50% of internet usage as other web enabled or connected devices grow in popularity, such as TV, mobile phones and games consoles.

Other findings include that almost 50% of Europeans now have an internet connection and people spent almost nine hours per week using the web in 2008, up 27% from 2004. This is more time than they spent reading print media, watching movies offline or playing video games.

However there is a clear North-South divide with those in Northern Europe having an internet penetration rate of 76% on average compared to 45% in Southern Europe.

Jeffrey Cole, centre for digital future director at USC Annenberg School, said: "Rather than shrinking, television will only grow in importance. TV no longer refers to the big screen in the home but to audio and visual content that will be watched everywhere.

"It will become our constant companion as it escapes from the home for the first time via the mobile phone and netbook PC."

John Mangelaars, vice president of Microsoft consumer and online, EMEA, said: "The three screens -- TV, mobile and PC will remain the most important media and technology in our lives.

"While today the experience is fragmented across multiple media devices and environments -- from the living room television to the bedroom PC to the portable music player and mobile phone -- in future, software from Microsoft and others will enable connected, integrated entertainment experiences."

Comments

David Brennan - 09/04/2009

From a research perspective, this is self-serving, misleading garbage. Microsoft should know better than to put their name to such spurious nonsense. They've done great work previously – not least when they collaborated with MTV to look at youth media consumption – but this is fantasy. The figures are so misleading because the research is flawed – based as it is on the claimed behaviour of an online access panel. Inevitably the TV viewing vs. online use was going to be massively skewed to online because claimed behaviour consistently undervalues TV viewing \(as it is a passive, relaxed media behaviour – people rarely accurately guess how much TV they watch) and overplays online usage. It is also only based on the online population – so those who have zero or minimal internet use are excluded \(and they are likely to be higher than average TV viewers). And participants in access panels also tend to skew much heavier than average in terms of online behaviour. Any general conclusions or predications on the state of European media consumption are built on very thin ice. Crucially, the TV viewing figures are wildly wrong for the UK. In the UK, BARB figures \(which measure actual TV viewing and are the currency for billions of advertising pounds) showed that 2008 was a record year for broadcast TV viewing. We watched an average of over 26 hours a week each, up on the year before and the year before that. The trend in the UK is that broadcast TV is growing \(despite or even because of online TV viewing). This is being replicated across most European countries. To suggest average broadcast viewing in Europe is half that of the UK is ridiculous. Only the IPA's Touchpoints offers a real monitor of comparable media usage patterns. Touchpoints shows that over 9 hours is spent using the internet every week. But 27.3 hours are spent with television, nearly three times as much. In terms of media time, TV accounts for 54%, print 6%, radio 27% and the internet just 13% of the average day. This has been replicated in several European countries, including France and Netherlands, with very similar results. These are based on strongly quality-controlled research, monitoring actual media behaviour in real time, and subject to the rigorous scrutiny of the whole media industry. To claim that one in seven 18-24 year-olds now watch no live TV at all is rubbish. During 2008, BARB figures show that broadcast TV reached over 99% of 16-24s. That's 95.3% of them every month. And the PC is almost certainly not the only television screen for 18-24s. TGI data shows that only 1.99% of 15-24s have no television set at all. 25.2% of them do not own a PC or laptop of any kind. Now more than ever the media industry needs reliable research it can trust so it can make the right decisions. This is not it. Please ignore it.