Italy and Spain are forging ahead of the US and other European countries in adoption of online and web TV services, according to “Internet TV : Southern Europe Leads The Way,” from the Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies service. The Strategy Analytics survey of 3500 Internet users found that 22% of Spanish respondents are regular users of streamed video from broadcaster websites, compared to 18% in the US and only 8% in Germany. This report estimates that 32 million people in the US and 34 million in Europe are now regular users of video streaming from broadcast network websites.

“Internet users in Southern Europe are clearly making the most of the Internet’s capacity to deliver programming choice,” notes Martin Olausson, Director of Digital Media Strategies. “The success of web TV in these countries is in contrast to the relative lack of interest in traditional multichannel TV services from cable and satellite providers.”

The popularity of video file sharing over unauthorized networks is also markedly higher in Spain and Italy than elsewhere. Sixty-six percent of Spanish and fifty-five percent of Italian respondents admit to engaging in this activity at least several times a year, compared to only twenty-eight percent in the US and eighteen percent in Germany.