Microsoft: Internet to overtake traditional TV

If current growth trends continue, the internet will overtake traditional TV as the most consumed form of media for the first time in June 2010. By then internet consumption 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, according to a report released by Microsoft.

Online video is established as the most popular online audiovisual entertainment application, with more than one in four (28%) Europeans and over 300 million people worldwide watching short or full-length videos over the internet.

The report, which assesses people’s online behaviour across Europe and discusses the trends of the future, highlights that while the internet will become the most popular media, this does not signify the decline in TV, it simply reflects the changing ways people experience TV content. No longer a one-way broadcast experience, TV becomes a two-way connected experience delivered via broadband to multiple screens – TV, PC, mobile.

For some segments of the market, such as the 18-24 year old segment, the PC is often the only television screen; for others, it can be a second or third screen. To this generation, TV frequently means video, delivered on demand. In fact, one in seven 18-24 year-olds no longer watch live TV at all. 42% of young adults regularly watch TV online, through a PC.

Over the next five years, Microsoft predicts that long-form video content and IPTV will become the norm on a TV that has by then effectively evolved into a PC, largely ending the need to watch TV in real-time. Consumers will read books, newspapers and magazines on electronic devices that have Wi-fi access. The 3D internet will become a reality, allowing consumers to virtually experience a holiday resort before they book it, on their PC or mobile phone.

The erosion of traditional TV viewing and the rise of online consumption can be attributed to the explosion in broadband penetration