• by Dale Chaney , June 13, 2002

Rather than competing for the same exclusive audience, the two media may actually be sharing ‘double-clickers.'
A new study shows that the oft-predicted struggle between TV and the Internet may be turning out to be more symbiotic than anything else: the Internet may be driving surfers to their TVs while TV may be driving viewers to the web. The study, by Statistical Research Inc., focused on respondents’ use of their televisions, PCs, and on the simultaneous—or what SRI terms “double-clicking”—use of TV and PC during the day before they were surveyed.

The study reports a major difference between web users in broadband and dial-up households. While the broadband-household base includes 201 responses compared with 1,272 in the dial-up category, the study shows a stronger symbiotic link (on a percentage basis) between TV and the web among broadband households. Thirty-four percent of broadband households watched a TV program due to the web, compared with 18 percent of dial-up households. Sixty percent of broadband households visited a TV-related website, compared with 58 percent of dial-up households. Broadband respondents are also more than twice as likely as dial-up respondents (10 percent compared to four percent) to watch a TV program due to influence or something they had seen on the web.

When asked which activity they considered primary—TV or PC—four in five primetime respondents cited the PC. However, when broken out by Internet connection, nine in 10 respondents with broadband Internet connections identified the PC as their primary activity. The study also shows that 28 percent of Internet users with high-speed access at home used a TV and PC simultaneously. This compares with 20 percent of those with dial-up connections.

In other categories, males—about 8 percent—were slightly more likely than females—about 5 percent—to report simultaneous TV and PC use during primetime. Teens and young adults in the 18-24 age bracket were twice as likely as older adults to engage in simultaneous TV and PC use during primetime. However, the highest proportions of primetime double-clickers were found in homes with broadband Internet connections and/or two or more PCs.

SRI uses an “RDD”—randomly dialed digits—system to select respondents nationwide (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Because the numbers were generated by computer, rather than selected from a phone book, the sample includes households with unlisted and unpublished numbers.

“Our other research has shown the importance of telephone households not listed in current directories,” says SRI’s David Tice. “This method—RDD—gives us access to those numbers and a sample that matches the census. SRI also sample-balanced the data to further match the census distribution in terms of age. People in the 18-34 age range are the hardest to get hold of, so we age-balanced the data.”

Freelance writer Dale Chaney can be reached at dale_chaney@msn.com.