A new study into 10 European markets by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has revealed that 57% of Europeans access the Internet each week, for an average of 11.9 hours. Perhaps the biggest revelation is that 16-24 year olds now spend more time on the Internet than watching TV – 82% of them are online between five and seven days every week while only 77% watch TV as regularly. They also spend 10% more time surfing the internet than sat in front of the television and almost half (48%) claim their TV consumption has dropped off as a direct result of the Internet. But older users have increased, too. Since 2006, there has been a 12% rise in the number of 55+ year olds using the internet each week and an 8% increase amongst women. 42% of Internet users access social networking sites at least once a month, leaving it just behind search and e-mail in popularity, and those accessing video clips of some kind has grown by 150% over the last year – in part due to the fact that 81% of users now have broadband connections.
