The internet is replacing broadcast Television for entertainment and news communication

Not yet, I'd agree it has the potential to, but you're looking at it from the view of a regular net user.

Don't forget - there are still MILLIONS of people without internet access in the home - and the home is where 90% of people watch tv and read/ listen/ watch the news.

Perhaps there will come a day when everyone has internet acces, until then anything online is merely a supplement to the more traditional forms of media.

All of that is absolutely correct but the report and my own experience ( so this make all my assumptions correct only for me ) shows that where the internet is in the house then the internet is taking over from the TV.

Also if you ask the question from the position of a creator of content then the answer seems quite obvious.

Production of for the internet and subsequent distribution and marketing is far far less in cost than creating a TV Show for broadcast.

Certainly the guys behind Sanctuary and 35 are both experiencing this.

I will concede the millions without internet access in the home whom still have TV and broadcast via the radio wave is still fairly universal but where the net is entering the home then the lines are moving from Radio Wave to Ethernet Cable.

Again, not strictly true.

As an example, my in-laws have net access but they use it ONLY for email. My grandparents have net access but again - primarily for email, as do my brother and some family friends.

Even though she would be able to access the news far more quickly online my mother-in-law has a cable box set up purely for the Italian channels so she can watch the news from home on TV and I'm sure this is not an isolated case.

I think many of us forget that not everyone has been sold on the idea of the internet as a way of life, just because they have a pc with an internet connection in the home, not everybody will explore everything it has to offer.

just check the ONS report for confirmation of this - under 40% of people with internet access used it for reading/ downloading the news. There's no mention of tv on there but it does show that only 36% used it for playing/ downloading music and from my experience that's an activity more popular than watching tv because you can listen to music while doing other things..

Rosevibe, ive not disagreed with your first or your second statement but you havent actually given any stats for cost of production for media creators. Plus the claim is a extension of the IBM survey which surveyed people on the streets and people on the net.

Your spot on that a majority of people are still ofline. Effectively making the whole internet a walled garden to them which have no net access.

However 40% is just 4 out of 10 and thats 1 away from a half way split to be the arguement in the other court.

Of course the smart question here is to ask who sponsored these reports in the first place ?

And then to look at the votes here were pretty evenly split.

Meh, fair point - sorry my last comment was in response to

where the internet is in the house then the internet is taking over from the TV.'

I accede that you didn't in fact disagree with me, I took that quote out of the context of just your own personal experience..

That being said.. *grin*

Your actual claim is

The internet is replacing broadcast Television for entertainment and news communication

The wording suggests the replacement is happening NOW. I feel that your claim is a tad premature and so have to disagree.
While it's true I have no access to data on production costs, at the end of the day it's viewers who count and at present there are just far more broadcast only viewers than internet only viewers.

To say that a product is replacing 'something else' when in reality it is used by less people who ALSO use the 'something else'.. well - do I really need to spell that one out?

The ONS dadta I've previously linked to shows that not everyone has access to online content - so already there is a large percentage of people who are not replacing broadcast media.
Then you have the people who DO have access - but choose broadcast media over the internet.

Then you have the larger percent of people who utilise both broadcast media AND internet media, which leaves only a small percent who have chosen internet media over that which is broadcast.

Sure, as far as the number crunchers in accounts are concerned - internet wins, but it's viewers who count, where the consumers are the product stays.

New media is not going to replace broadcast media for quite some time - purely because the audience is not yet there for it.

Bah! didn't realise jyte won't use some html tags.. there's supposed to be 'quotes' in that *sigh* I hate messy type.