Internet to overtake TV in June 2010

Traditional TV to be correct. Over the last few weeks and months we have been studying a number of European statistics coming from our own services as well as external data and that resulted in some interesting findings, one of which that says that by June 2010 people on average will spend more time online than watching traditional television. Here’s a graph with several possible scenarios:

I wasn’t involved in the project (at least not in the research part) but did get an early view at the data which led me to create this presentation that offer a quick look at some key stats. The full report is available as PDF and can be downloaded from Scribd right here.

Amongst these statistics you will learn that 50% of all Europeans are now connected to the internet but that there’s a clear north/south divide showing the Nordic countries with an internet penetration rate of 76% versus 45% in Southern Europe. Here’s the presentation:

Something I also found rather interesting, and which I had also noted during the live blogging of the Reality Bites event (where he was a speaker) is this comment from Jeffrey Cole:

“Broadband has changed everything.  And it’s not speed of access that has made the biggest impact, its having a direct connection that is always on. This has changed the internet experience dramatically. It’s no longer a disruptive experience where people have their PC in the backroom of the house and where they use a dial-up connection a couple times a day to do some specific tasks. Now, the PC has moved to centre stage in the kitchen or living room where it does not interfere in the family conversation or TV viewing but is integrated into everything we do.”

You would sometimes forget that broadband changed the internet indeed a lot more than just making it faster. Going back to dial-up would not be just going back to a slower internet, it would be equal to going back to planning tasks for when you will log on. Fundamentally different :)