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Porn, Music Driving European Broadband Gains-Study
submitted by dadaist
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - High-speed Internet access in Europe continues to grow at a healthy rate, boosted by consumer demand for file-sharing, pornography and music, a new study said on Thursday.
According to market research firm Nielsen/Netratings, the number of European surfers using fast broadband Internet connections at home grew by 136 percent in the year ending in April, 2003.
The beneficiaries of the broadband boom are entertainment sites, in particular adult entertainment, Netratings said.
"The adult entertainment sector has increased its reach year-on-year in all European markets except Italy, where, not coincidentally, broadband access is the relative lowest in Europe," the report said.
The strong demand for broadband is a good news-bad news scenario. For example, major music labels decry the rampant trade of copyright-protected songs, an activity that has surged as home users get faster Internet connections.
Free file-sharing services such as Kazaa and Grokster have become a hit with broadband-equipped music fans who can speedily download large music files. The labels have tried to shut down the services as they blame them for the decline in recorded music sales, which could last a few more years, executives say.
Meanwhile, Internet service providers (ISPs) including T-Online, Wanadoo and BT OpenWorld are banking heavily on widescale deployment of higher-margin broadband access.
The biggest gainer in the past year is Britain where broadband penetration has more than tripled to 3.7 million users.
The UK remains second from the bottom in Europe in terms of broadband penetration though, with 21.6 percent of all Internet users on broadband. In Italy, broadband penetration is at 16.4 percent, or 1.8 million.
France, Spain and the Netherlands round out the top three with 39 percent, 37.2 percent and 36.6 percent of the their Internet users, respectively, on a high-speed connection.
In comparison, the U.S. is the world's broadband leader with 38 million, or 35 percent of Internet users, on broadband. The biggest markets in terms of penetration are in Asia, led by South Korea and Hong Kong.
If current rates continue, there will be over 53 million Europeans with broadband, five million shy of the U.S., by April 2004, NetRatings analyst Tom Ewing said.
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