TV Viewing Is Combined With Multitasking

Multitasking around TV viewing continues to climb -- but those tasks are rarely related to TV viewing.

TiVo says over half of its 856 survey respondents -- 51% -- say they multitask every time or almost every time they watch TV, compared to just over one third, 36%, from a year ago.

But only 5% say they are doing TV-related multitasking every time or almost every time they watch TV, while 50% report never or almost never engaging in TV-related multitasking.

In addition, only 22% reported ever posting on social media sites about shows they watch, while 5% of all respondents do this a few times a week or more.

TiVo says TV viewing remains viewers' primary task while multitasking -- 47% of the time. This has grown from 39% a year ago. At the same time, TiVo also says 27% of their TV time is spent only watching TV -- with no multitasking -- down from 35% in 2013.

Top TV-time activities include browsing the Internet, at 74%; reading or sending email, at 73%; and text messaging, 71%.

"Even given the proliferation of multitasking, viewers remain primarily focused on the television shows they are watching," said Jonathan Steuer, chief research officer for TiVo.

But maybe not during commercials. TiVo says that during commercial breaks, 56% say they are multitasking every time or almost every time. Overall, 58% use another device almost every or every time they watch TV.

TiVo conducted an online survey of 856 people between August 21 and 26, 2014. All survey participants were over the age of 18 and watched at least seven hours of TV per week on any device.

"Watching TV while working on a Laptop" photo from Shutterstock.

1 comment about "TV Viewing Is Combined With Multitasking".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 19, 2014 at 9:57 a.m.

    While this sort of survey does not give you a real idea of how much of their TV viewing time these respondents really spend 'multitasking", it is worth noting the relatively high claims about doing so during TV commercials. While some have maintained that TV commercials are enhanced by multitasking, this only occurs when the multitasking is focused on the commercials, themselves----by tweeting about them or receiving tweets about them. This happens very rarely, however, and most multitasking during commercials is another means of avoidance------hardly a big plus for most advertisers one would think.

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