Internet users are also heavy television watchers
Television and cable networks have feared for years that heavy usage of the internet would erode their user base, costing them both viewers and dollars. A new study by the television industry watchdog Nielsen Company has found that this might not be the case. Its study shows that about one third of all family internet usage occurs while the family members are also watching television.
The Nielsen study found that heavy users of the internet are also some of the heaviest watchers of television. People who spend a great deal of time on the internet watch about 250 minutes a day watching television, whereas people that do not use the internet at all spend only 220 minutes per day. The internet user group also appears to be surfing the net at the same time that they are watching television.
The information comes from Nielsen’s new TV/Internet Convergence Panel, which electronically measures internet and television usage in the same homes. The finding from this new panel include:
- About 31 percent of all internet activity takes place while the internet surfer is also watching television.
- Heavy internet users are also heavy television watchers.
- Low consumers of television are also light internet users.
- Roughly 50 percent of the studied users had viewed some streaming content online.
- Nearly 60 percent of users and more than 80 percent of people who watched TV and used the Internet that month had simultaneous sessions – watching TV and being online at the same minute.
- Teens are the most likely demographic to have simultaneous TV/Internet usage, but Adults 35-54 have the most simultaneous usage minutes.
Howard Shimmel, a Neilsen Company senior vice president, further explained, “With our Convergence Panel we can now, for the first time, observe what could only be guessed at before – how television viewing and Internet usage interact and affect each other. It is too early to draw any firm conclusions about behavior but the early trends seem to indicate that online usage is complementing, not substituting for, traditional television viewing. We will be watching this trend carefully to see how television viewing drives Internet usage and visa versa.”
These findings certainly seem to be supported by anecdotal evidence. Users of micro-blogging services such as Plurk and Twitter seem to spend an inordinate amount of time telling the other users what they are watching on television. Obvious, these heavy internet users are part of the simultaneous-use group.
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