In a report released recently by Microsoft which you can download from scribd , Europe’s future digital prospects are illustrated in flying colors. According to the report, given that current media trends continue their growth, internet consumption will overtake traditional TV by mid-2010, or at worse by the beginning of 2012. This however does not mean that users are stepping away from TV content. It’s the form of how TV content is consumed that is dramatically changing. Users use PC to see live TV (9%) or record TV programs on their hard-drives (4%), or own portable TV content (10%). In all these figures, IPTV has only a 6% overall penetration.
Interestingly, PC usage is expected to drop from 95% to only 50%. The main reason is that high-end internet enabled devices are flooding the markets (e.g. interactive TV sets, game consoles, 3G devices, etc) [which rather implies that video content is indeed important for the end user; however current TV sets lack serious functionality].
Time online is driven primarily by content and communication services (i.e. news sites, online video, social networking sites and email) that currently represents 65% of all online time. Internet usage is expected to grow due to the variety of internet enabled devices that are being available in the markets. For example, 48% of the people is expected to use a smartphone by 2013 making internet connectivity effective nearly everywhere.
Traditional newspaper’s readership is falling very fast. Digital versions of traditional paper media add extra functionality to their users. For example 58% of newspaper websites feature some form of user generated content (more than doubled since 2007). Also 75% of the newspaper sites allow users to comment on their articles and other content (more than doubled since 2007 too). User’s involvement in news coverage, analysis and reports seems to shape fast [reader's comments, user-generated content and blogs are having a profound impact on public thinking. For example, as some may have guessed, the picture depicts the effect of Broadband Prime on young girls]. You can read the report for more.
