Many Europeans Choose Internet Over TV

Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:41 AM EST

technology, europe, online, west-europeans

BRUSSELS — Almost six out of 10 West Europeans now regularly access the Internet and, for the first time, young people are more likely to go online for most days of the week than turn on the television, according to a new survey.

Still, the web is less and less the turf of the young: the past year saw a 12 percent jump in so-called 'silver surfers' — Europeans 55-and-older — using the Internet and an 8 percent rise in Internet use by women, said the survey by the European Interactive Advertising Association, a trade group of sellers of interactive media, released this week.

It said 16-to-24-year olds now prefer going online to watching the tube: 82 percent use the Internet between 5 and 7 days each week "while only 77 percent watch TV as regularly," a drop of 5 percent from 2006, the survey found.

It said 42 percent of users communicate via social networking sites at least once a month.

The number of people watching TV, film or video online at least once a month jumped 150 percent since 2006, said the survey.

More than 80 percent of those polled said they "couldn't live" without at least one Internet activity.

The survey was based on 7,008 random phone interviews in September in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the three Scandinavian nations, Belgium and the Netherlands. It gave no margin of error.

The survey found that in the 10 nations, 169 million people now go "frequently online."

They spend "a lengthy 11.9 hours online each week and nearly a third are recognized as 'heavy internet users as they spend an average of 16 hours or more online each week, representing more than 48 million people," said the survey.

It said 87 percent seek information online, followed by e-mailing (81 percent); social networking, (42), instant messaging (37), music downloading and listening to radio (both 31), watching TV, film or video (30); checking ratings and reviews (27), forums (26) and downloading film or video (20).

Eighty percent of West Europeans connect to the internet via a broadband connection, the survey said.

"Our Mediascope study shows consumers are using the internet for function and fun as their media world becomes truly digital," said Alison Fennah, the EIAA executive director.

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Regions: Spain , United Kingdom , Netherlands , Italy , France , Germany , Belgium , Brussels

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Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

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{"commentId":1181448,"authorDomain":"kylen"}

KyleN

If only shows would distribute full quality online there wouldn't be a difference as your TV would be on the internet.

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#1 - Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:00 AM EST

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Many Europeans Choose Internet Over TV

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