Insight: The American Media MultitaskerPublished: July 2010 | By Yahoo! and Nielsen
Yahoo!
recently teamed up with Nielsen, the wizards behind the well-known TV
ratings, to find out how much time Americans spend media multitasking.
The answer? A whopping three-fourths of Internet users are surfing the
‘net while watching TV. That’s a 20 percent increase over last year. In
addition, more than half of the multitaskers say the Internet is their
primary focus.
Yahoo!’s findings were based on an exclusive
opportunity to survey Nielsen’s Convergence Panel, which measures the
simultaneous use of television and online content. The findings help us –
and our advertising partners – understand more about where consumers
are focusing their attention, as well as which sites are most frequented
during simultaneous consumption.
Key findings include:
1. Simultaneous use of TV & Internet is common, frequent, and growing
- Three out of four online Americans multitask with TV and Internet.
- One-half of multitaskers do this daily; 90% do it at least once per week , 51% daily.
- Time spent using TV and Internet simultaneously has grown 20% Y/Y.
- Women are more likely to multitask than men (73% v. 77%).
2. When using the TV & Internet at the same time, attention is usually focused online
- More than one-half say that Internet is the primary focus of attention (54%).
- Only 16% say that TV is the primary focus of attention.
3. Simultaneous use of Internet is typically unrelated to TV programs or commercials
- Only 7% report their simultaneous online surfing is frequently related to the TV show or advertisement.
- Big 3 Internet sites (Google, Yahoo!, Facebook) are also most frequented sites during simultaneous consumption.
