Americans consider themselves expert multitaskers, listening to the radio while driving, surfing the Internet while watching TV, and talking on the phone while doing everything else.
Yet while advertisers worry if consumers are paying attention, media multitasking might not be as prevalent as they fear. A September 2008 study by MRI found that about one-half of major media consumption is exclusive.
TV gets multitasked the most. At home, nearly one-fifth (19%) of magazine reading is
done while watching TV, as is 17.4% of Internet usage and 15.3%
of newspaper reading.
Consumers were far more likely to multitask with the Internet and TV outside the home. For the Internet, that typically meant using the Web at work, where only 20.4% of usage was exclusive.
Multitasking actually helps explain why TV usage has continued to rise, even as consumers spend more time on the Internet—especially with online video: Simultaneous viewing means the "usage meter" is running on both media at the same time. So despite the increase in time spent online, Americans are still putting in more TV time every year.
"Commercial television is alive and well—growing 1% year over year—despite the rapid adoption of other platforms," said John Burbank, CMO at Nielsen Online, in a statement.
Nielsen found the average TV viewer surveyed in May 2008 watched more than 127 hours of television and spent more than 26 hours online during the month.
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