Watching TV While Online Still Leaves Some Time for Ads

Mike Vorhaus on Digital Communications

by Mike Vorhaus
Published: October 26, 2009

Photo: Stephanie Diani

Mike Vorhaus is president of Magid Advisors for Frank N. Magid Associates.

Back in June, I noted that about one-third of online Americans said they spend 50% or more time on a computer than watching TV, and, on average, consumers report using a computer 42% of the time they watch TV. That's a lot of folks watching a lot of TV while looking at a lot on their computers. And, somewhere in all of that TV and internet content, there are a bunch of ads. You might be surprised (pleasantly) to know that a lot of consumers, especially young men, pay attention to some of those ads. In fact, the TV ad is the great standout.

While a plurality of folks ages 12 to 64 say they don't notice either TV or online ads when they are watching TV and on the web, a lot say they do notice. One in five consumers say they pay more attention to TV ads than to internet ads. And even slightly more, 22%, say they pay equal attention to TV ads and online ads while multitasking. Only 10% of consumers say they pay more attention to online ads.

1 Comment

By shortlist | LOS ANGELES, CA October 27, 2009 11:36:28 am:

I commmonly have a competition going between my TV and laptop, but Sunday night's live broadcast of the U2 concert on Youtube changed that. My computer won. The tv was shut off.

http://shortlist.posterous.com/the-day-my-computer-won

Charlie McBrearty
shortlist

Permalink