Nights in front of the TV could become a thing of the past as more and more people get hooked up to broadband.

More than half of those quizzed in a recent survey said they spent less time in front of the goggle box since getting broadband. Instead, they're staring at a monitor all night and doing stuff online.

Strategy Analytics surveyed 800 European broadband users and discovered that 56 per cent spent less, or a lot less, time watching television since subscribing to broadband.

In its report Broadcasters Beware: Broadband Is Stealing Your Viewers, the firm warns that TV broadcasters are losing millions of viewers to broadband Internet services.

"Television is clearly suffering the most from the rapid growth of broadband," said analyst David Mercer. "A growing number of viewers are now choosing to spend their spare time communicating online and finding entertainment on the Internet, rather than sitting in front of the TV set. TV companies need to face up to this reality and start preparing for the brave new world of broadband entertainment."

thats true ever since i got the internet i spend less time on the tv and more time on the internet (im still on a 56k dial up i might start to use more when i get broad band ) With broadband people can just download the show they want to thru file sharing my friend download the simpson off file sharing plus another reason tv is not as fun as the internet is that they don't put on good shows.