• by Wayne Friedman , July 29, 2005

New TV research has discovered that young teens and tweens are less interested in TV as they get older.

This is not to say that children aren't still enamored with television, according to new research by Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com. Almost 80% of the 8- to 14-year-olds, or so-called tweens, "love" television. But that number drops to 60% in 12- to 14-year-olds.

The research points out that the 8-14 audience gets "distracted" by other activities when watching the television. As they get older, other activities take up their interest--such as reading, listening to music, or mostly, surfing the Internet--while watching television. This research has found out what other studies have shown--the young people are masters at multi-tasking.

Perhaps aping conventional wisdom from parents or other adults, a significant minority of tweens say "watching too much TV is bad for you."

Packaged Facts says tweens and young teens control a purchasing power of $40 billion--and that if marketers want to take advantage of this, they should start shifting money to the Internet.