Television losing younger viewers
The Internet has surpassed television as the first choice among 16-24 year-olds in Europe, according to a new study released by a media trade organization, the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA).
Titled “Shifting Traditions: Internet Rivalling TV In Media Consumption Stakes,” the September 2007 survey is based on more than 7,000 random telephone interviews, according to the EIAA press release. Countries represented were the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
The study found that in the 16-24 year-old age span:
- 82% use the Internet between 5 and 7 days each week while only 77% watch TV as regularly (a decrease of 5% since last year);
- 10% more time is spent on the Internet than in watching television;
- almost half (48%) claim their TV consumption has dropped off as a direct result of the Internet.
Other key findings of the survey found that 169 million people are now online across ten European markets. That growth is being driven by increased use of the Internet among seniors and women. Internet users are staying online nearly 12 hours a week on average, the report said, and social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook as two examples, are now visited by 42% of Internet users.
