Microsoft: Internet to overtake traditional TV

Traditional TV will be overtaken by the internet as the most consumed kind of media by 2010, it has been claimed.

Microsoft believes that this will be the case if current growth trends remain the same, asserting that internet consumption in 2010 will average 14.2 hours every week, or more than 2.5 days a month.

This is compared to the projected 11.5 hours a week, or two days a month, for TV - something that may interest advertisers looking to market on either of the mediums, Microsoft said.

It notes, however, that the trend represents a shift in how TV is consumed instead of a decline in the medium.

“TV no longer refers to the big screen in the home but to audio and visual content that will be watched everywhere,” commented director of the Centre for Digital Future at USC Annenberg School Jeffrey Cole.

The findings have been reported in Microsoft’s Europe Logs On: Internet Trends of Today & Tomorrow, which analysed people’s online behaviour in Europe and talked about trends of the future.

Eva Berg-Winters, assistant director at PricewaterhouseCoopers Strategy, recently claimed that internet advertising should do better than other platforms in 2009.