If you have an Internet connection at home, odds are you’re watching less television. Maybe as much as 25% less, depending on the broadcast or cable network, according to research now being distributed to TV executives by Nielsen/NetRatings Inc.
“It’s not that people are abandoning TV for the Internet. Sometimes, they do both,” said Mainak Mazumdar, the company’s vice president of Product Marketing and Measurement Science. “We only have 24 hours a day … (that’s) a finite amount of time to consume media.”
The Nielsen analyst said the results are “phenomenal” and that broadcasters are smart to put their programming on their Web sites. He cited data which showed visitors to Yahoo and MySpace watch more of the programming on Bravo and Comedy Central than does the average viewer. “That’s not surprising,” he said. “They’re kind of lifestyle channels.”
The interest in combined TV-Internet ratings has been high. Mazumdar said he was unable to accommodate all the Web companies which wanted to participate in the beta test of the research methodology. Beginning next month, he said Nielsen Media Research will add Internet activity metering to those homes also participating in its TV ratings service.
Photo by kinderkram.
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