• by November 20, 2000

The Food Network and ESPN have emerged as leading television networks when it comes to connecting viewers to program websites. The major broadcast networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox) have not done as well in terms of getting Internet-enabled viewers to access their program sites, although they still do better than most cable networks.

Individuals with Internet access report, on average, are spending 3.8 hours a week both watching television and being online. For many of those individuals, the information they are seeking when both online and watching TV revolves around the program they are watching.

Six percent of Internet-enabled individuals who viewed "Survivor," for example, report that they went to the CBS website to get information about the show at some time while they were watching it. For both NBC's Olympics coverage and ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," 8% of Web-connected viewers indicate that they have been on the program website while watching. For CBS's "Big Brother," 16% of Internet-enabled viewers report going to the show website for information while they were watching the program being broadcast.

THE STUDY

These findings, from a new study jointly conducted by Burke, Inc. and NFO Interactive, suggest that program advertisers can increase their exposure to audiences by also looking for sponsorship opportunities on program websites. The study, "Connecting With Viewers: TV Programs and Their Websites," surveyed 8,605 NFO Interactive panelists to discover more about the evolving relationship between television and the Internet.

Adults surveyed via the Internet from October 9 to October 25 were first asked which of 315 programs on 27 broadcast and cable TV programs they had personally watched in the three months prior to being surveyed. Viewers of programs were then asked if they had ever gone to the network website for that program and, if so, whether they had gone to the website for program information during or after their viewing. Viewers of each network were also asked if they had ever decided to watch a program as a result of visiting that network's website.

THE RESULTS

"Some have suggested that the Internet is killing TV," said Cary Nadel, a Burke VP who directs the company's information, communications, and entertainment research practice area. "The findings from this study, however, show that Internet use not only coexists with TV viewing, it can encourage and enhance the viewing experience."

There is a strong relationship between television viewership and online activity. The more someone uses one media, the more that individual uses the other.

The growth of high-speed access to the Internet might, however, change the dynamics of the relationship between TV viewing and Internet use. Sixteen percent of survey respondents reported having high-speed Internet access, and their average weekly TV viewing time was 15.9 hours, compared to 17.4 hours of weekly TV viewing, on average, for individuals with di