Simultaneous TV/Web Usage Jumps

March 23, 2010

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Broadcast & Cable | Media & Entertainment | Television | TV Advertising

More people spent more time simultaneously viewing the internet and TV in December 2009 than in June 2009 or December 2008, according to the Three Screens Report from The Nielsen Company.

TV and Web: The Perfect Pair
In December 2009, 59% of Americans used TV and the internet simultaneously, compared to 56.9% in June 2009 and 57.5% in December 2008. On a year-over-year basis, participation in this activity increased 2.7%.

Counting individual users, 134,056 Americans used TV and the internet simultaneously in December 2009. This compares to 128,047 in June 2009 and 128,167 in December 2008. On a year-over-year basis, the number of people using TV and the internet simultaneously increased 4.6%.

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Time Spent in Simultaneous Usage Rises 34.5%
The time spent per person simultaneously using the internet and TV was three hours and thirty minutes in December 2009, compared to two hours and 39 minutes in June 2009 and two hours and 36 minutes in December 2008. On a year-over-year basis, time spent simultaneously using these two forms of electronic media grew a significant 34.5%.

TV Time Bites into Web Time
TV usage appears to be spilling into time spent on the internet, rather than vice versa. Panelists spent an average of 34% of their internet time also watching TV in December 2009, compared to 27.9% in June 2009 and 29.9% in December 2008. On a year-over-year basis, the amount of internet time panelists spent watching TV rose 13.9%.

In contrast, panelists only spent 3.1% of their December 2009 watching TV time also using the internet, compared to 2.7% in June 2009 and 2.4% in December 2008. Despite the much smaller percentages, it is worth noting that the TV-watching time spent also using the internet grew at a much higher annual rate of 29.7%, more than double the growth rate of internet time spent also watching TV.

Facebook, Google and Yahoo Top Sites for Major Event TV Viewers
Viewers of major TV events, such as the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards, favor Facebook, Google and Yahoo as destinations for their simultaneous surfing, according to previous Nielsen research. Almost 13% of 2010 Super Bowl viewers simultaneously used the internet, while almost 9% of 2010 Academy Awards viewers did the same. The top three most visited sites for Super Bowl viewers were Google, Facebook and Yahoo. Academy Awards viewers preferred the same top three sites, but switched the ranking of Facebook and Google to numbers one and two, respectively.

About the Survey: Nielsen’s Three Screen Report tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones.

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