• by March 8, 2001

Who said the web would hurt television?

A new study from Statistical Research shows that broadband Internet access is perhaps the most consistent factor in deepening the connection between television and personal computers -- from use of "enhanced TV" to watching TV programs after learning about them on the Web.

The study, titled "The TV/PC Connection 2001" surveyed a sample base of 3,000 to show that 28% of Internet users with high-speed access at home "double-clicked" - used a TV and PC simultaneously - at some point during the day, as opposed to 20% of those with dial-up connections.

Within primetime, 16% of those with home broadband double- clicked, versus 10% of home dial-up users - a 60% difference.

In addition, Web users with high-speed access at home are almost twice as likely to have tried "enhanced TV" - participating in a Web activity related to a show they are watching - and to have watched a TV show as a result of something they saw on the Web.

Incidentally, exactly a year ago Statistical Research showed that during primetime, TV advertising is second only to word- of-mouth and searching/surfing as a vehicle for generating website traffic, and one in five primetime web users cited TV ads as the place to learn about most of the sites they visit.

I won't use the "convergence" buzzword because I'm still unclear on the exact definition of it, but I will say that cross media advertisers should definitely pay some serious attention to this concept of "double-clickers."