Internet supplanting traditional media products

Just over half of internet users in the Netherlands listened to radio and/or watched television programmes online in 2008. Just under half of users read newspapers online or downloaded them. Media use via the internet is displacing traditional forms of published media such as printed newspapers.

Media use via the internet, 2005-2008

Strong increase in online media use

More and more people in the Netherlands are using the media possibilities provided by the internet. The percentage of Dutch internet users  who read or downloaded newspapers via the internet rose by more than a third between 2005 and 2008. The increase in watching and listening to television and radio programmes online is even larger: it has more than doubled since 2005. In 2008, for the first time the number of people who watched television programmes and listened to radio programmes via the internet was larger than the number of people who read newspapers online.

Use of internet media by some background characteristics, 2008

Online newspapers popular among all ages

Male internet users more often read newspapers online than female internet users, 54 compared with 41 percent. Just over half of 25-44 year-olds read newspapers online. For other age groups this share is just over 40 percent. One in eight people who read newspapers online had a subscription to the online newspaper.

Internet television and radio programmes are very popular among internet users younger than 25 years. Just over 70 percent of these young people use these media. The use of internet to watch and listen to television and radio programmes decreases as age increases. For people aged 25 years and older, online television and radio is about just as popular as online newspapers. 

Use of traditional media decreasing

The rise of online media products is displacing traditional physical media such as newspapers. The total domestic circulation  of daily newspapers fell by some 16 percent between 2002 and 2008, from 4.3 million to 3.6 million copies.

The percentage of households with a subscription  to a daily newspaper decreased from nearly 60 percent in 2002 to 50 percent in 2007. Spending per household on newspaper subscriptions also fell, from an average 124 euro in 2003 to 110 euro in 2007. Taking inflation into account, the fall is twice as large.

Circulation and distribution of daily newspapers, 2002-2008

Maico Hoksbergen