Measuring Convergence

by Debbi Swanson, May 7, 2001, 12:00 AM

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One last report from @d:tech LA on the measurement of TV and the Web. It's all about that concept Nielsen//NetRatings' Tim Meadows "loosely calls convergence, one of the most overused words today." If you like stats, you would have loved what this presentation had to offer.

Here's a quick summary, followed by observations and implications.

- 27% growth in U.S. home Internet use from April 2000 to March 2001.

- 40 million have Internet access at work.

- TV has grown from 173 million in 1965 to 260 million in 2000.

- Home Internet peak use: 4-9 p.m.

- Work Internet peak use: 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

- Internet reaches people at work, TV doesn't.

- People watch about 4 hours of TV a day.

- Biggest day for Internet home use: Saturday.

- Time per person on the Internet has increased 45 minutes to over 10 hours per month.

- Time per person spent watching TV is 28 hours per month.

- Daily TV usage is up form 6:56 hours in 1990 to 7:31 in 1999.

- Men on Internet: 11.10 hours per month.

- Women on Internet 9:24 hours per month.

- Web pages read per month: Men - 774, Women - 586

- Internet usage at home higher is in lower age categories.

- As income goes up, surfing time goes down. Same as TV.

Now, on to convergence...

TV Networks want traffic to their websites. Who's leading the pack? CBS with 2.5% of Internet users. CBS has higher share of work Internet audience. Top cable net sites are news related led by weather.com, then MSNBC, CNN, followed by entertainment sites.

It's still a 56k world no matter how much the word broadband is tossed around, with 85.5 % of users on 56k or less. Upgrades to broadband are accelerating this year, as 39% of broadband users use streaming audio and video.

In 1998 people had access to 27 TV channels. Now it's 62. But people can only seem to handle watching from 12-13. Same goes for the net. Thousands of sites out there, but people pick about a dozen favorites and spend their time there.

Interesting notes:

When the presidential election was held, people logged onto msnbc.com as soon as the polls closed. Traffic is driven online from TV and the push is on to make that an even tighter bond.

Survivor - Traffic to the website peaks just before the final episode.

Cross media usage: Internet HHs watch slightly less TV (5-9%). Those HHs were lighters viewers anyway, so getting the Internet makes no difference.

Limitation of current research: can't link Internet surfing with TV viewing patterns.

Heavy Internet users are heavy TV viewers.

Net users watch news, sports, sitcoms on TV, in prime time and late night.

Two-thirds of the people surfing the Web and watching TV at the same time are teens and young adults, usually during prime time.

Females and adults 55+ spend a greater percentage of time on net.

Viewers of TV and cable news went to corresponding website, too. But viewers don't necessarily jump from ABC to ABC.com.

Ironically, MSNBC.com has a higher reach on ABC. AOL has a higher reach with CBS (due to content deals), NBCi has a higher reach on Fox/ABC. "Those ads with the girl promoting NBCi aren't working. The subtle references to msnbc.com during Dateline are," Meadows said.

Pending dilemmas:

When rating viewership, if a viewer is watching two shows at once (on the main screen and in a pop-up window), which show gets the credit? Nielsen doesn't have an answer yet, saying it's up to the ad buyers and sellers to figure that out.

And, if a person is using two media at once - TV and Internet - can both be counted fully?

Consensus: Meadows said the Internet "performs valuable services and will increase with richer content and information resources. When more people get broadband, they spend more time online. So when more people get broadband, the likelihood is that more people will be spending more time online."

His conclusion: "No media is an island. No new media ever replaced previous media. They find their own place."

- Debbi Swanson may be reached at WriterDeb@aol.com