Microsoft offered surprising insights in an April report entitled Europe Logs On: European Internet trends of today and tomorrow. Most surprising perhaps is a prediction that, based on current growth levels, Internet consumption will outstrip traditional TV in June 2010 – averaging 14.2 hours per week against 11.5 hours for TV.

Microsoft notes that Europeans spent an average of 8.9 hours per week, or 1.5 days a month, using the web in 2008, up 27% from 2004 – more time than they spent reading print media, watching movies, or playing video games. By 2010, however, the company predicts that number will grow to over 2.5 days a month spent on the Internet.

Another key projection suggests that Internet use on PCs will drop from its current 95% to only 50% over the next five years, as other web-enabled devices such as IPTV, games consoles and mobile phones become more popular.

Changes such as these are being spurred on by explosive growth in broadband in Europe. Since 2004, broadband connections have grown by almost 95%, from 44 million households in 2005 to over 85 million currently. Broadband Internet connections in Europe currently outstrip those in the U.S. on a percentage basis – at 83% of all Internet connections, compared to 70% in America.