• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, May 9, 2013

Advertisers, take note: Consumers are getting savvier at connecting their TVs to the Internet, and interacting with TV shows on mobile devices in new ways. Market research firm TDG reported that nearly 6 in 10 homes in the United States have connected their TVs to the Internet, either via a smart TV or through game consoles and Blu-ray players. Specifically, smart TV penetration has doubled from 12% to 25% in the last year.

In many cases, TV viewers are watching subscription VOD services on these connected TVs. Nielsen looked into the demographics of homes using such services and, not surprisingly, found that users of SVOD services skew towards the higher income. But this can be useful insight as media planners begin putting together more targeted plans that can segment by device and by service as they attempt to reach multi-platform consumers. Nielsen found that households with incomes over $100,000 were 85% more likely to have a streaming service than the rest of the population. That includes services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Blockbuster.com  and Vudu. In addition, about 63% of SVOD households don’t have kids.

Also, the more devices consumers have, the more likely they are to subscribe to other services. Nielsen said tablet owners were 66% more likely to pay for streaming content than the rest of the population. 

Those same tablet users also turn to the mobile devices when watching prime time, too. Nielsen said that about 20% of tablet users look up information on an advertiser product while they watch TV. About 13% looked up information related to a coupon or deal and about 29% looked up information related to the show.