TVB Study: Adults Spend Twice as Much Time on TV Than Web

Broadcast TV easily top source for local news

By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/13/2010 8:00:00 PM

Peopleage 18-plus watched 319 minutes of television a day, according to the MediaComparisons Study 2010 commissioned by the Television Bureau of Advertising(TVB). That figure more than doubles the time spent on the Internet (156.6minutes), and dwarfs daily time spent engaging with radio (91.2 minutes),newspapers (26.4 minutes) and mobile (19.2).

Otherfindings showed that television reaches nearly 90% of people 18-plus every day,better than the Internet's 67.5%, radio's 60.6% and newspapers' 38.6%, and TVreaches over 80% of the general population.

Furthermore,almost 61% of people 18-plus said television had the most "authoritative"advertising, miles ahead of newspapers (15.4%) and Internet (8.7%), whilealmost 86% said TV had the most "influential" advertising.

"These results reaffirm the findings of other studies, such as the Council for ResearchExcellence's Video and Consumer Mapping Study as well as Nielsen's Three ScreenReport," said TVB Senior VP of Research Susan Cuccinello. "By every measure,television reaches more consumers every day than newspapers, magazines, radio,the internet and mobile media, and more time is spent with television. Television also delivers impactful advertising and also connects with consumersthrough strong news performance."

Thestudy was conducted in January and had 1,562 respondents. Interviews wereconducted by Knowledge Networks.

Thefindings were encouraging for those in TV news, as 40.9% of people 18-plus saidbroadcast television was their "primary source of news", compared to theInternet's 17.4% and cable news' 15.2%. Tellingly, the Internet scored higherin that poll than newspapers (10.2%).

Over57% of respondents 18-plus said they turn to broadcast television first forlocal weather, traffic or sports-well ahead of the runner-up, which was theInternet at 15.6%.

TheTVB is a not for profit trade association representing over 600 TV stations.