• by Steve Sternberg , Featured Columnist, May 20, 2016

This headline is just as relevant as recent headlines breathlessly proclaiming that more people watch YouTube than traditional television, or millennials watch more online video than TV.

Anyone who knows anything about research or audience measurement knows these headlines and studies are mostly nonsense. 

Unfortunately, too many people just read the headlines and walk away misinformed.  Too many other people don’t note the source of the study and the vested interests and inherent bias of those providing the analysis.

Reach taken out of context without knowing time spent with the medium is not very meaningful. 

If I watch one YouTube video for three minutes, and then spend three hours watching television, the reach is the same.  But to say I watch just as much YouTube as television is gibberish. Having access to something and spending time using something are two different things.

Just for the record, the latest Nielsen data shows that adults 18+ spend more than 10 times as much time watching traditional TV than watching video on PCs, smartphones, and multi-media devices combined.  Even amongadults 18-24, traditional TV viewing is nearly five-times greater than all other video combined.