• by David Kaplan , December 2, 2004

Although much is made of the popularity of consuming multiple media forms when online, TV is still the media most likely to be paired with other media, according to a study commissioned by the Reston, Va.-based Media Center and conducted by BIGresearch.

In what could only be good news to direct mailers, in terms of the activity TV viewing is most often paired with, "reading the mail" tops the list of simultaneous media usage--a behavior practiced regularly or occasionally by 73.9 percent of consumers, the study found.

That's followed by using the Internet while watching TV, which was practiced by 62.9 percent of those surveyed. Reading a magazine while watching TV was done by 59.2 percent of respondents. And when it comes to choosing which channels to watch, 40.8 percent of consumers say they spend a larger percentage of time viewing cable television versus 37.5 percent of consumers who say they spend more time watching traditional TV networks.

The "Simultaneous Media Usage Study" was conducted online in May 2004, using BIGresearch's sampling technique, with 13,414 respondents participating. The margin of error was +/- 1 percent.