• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, November 7, 2007

People who use the Internet are increasingly layering their online time with other kinds of media consumption, according to an online survey of 2,700 Web users ages 18 and up conducted by Burst Media in October.

Overall, 82.4% of respondents say they are typically involved with some other kind of media, activity or device while online. Within this cohort, television is the most popular complementary medium, with 58.3% of multitaskers saying they also watch TV (that represents roughly 48% of total Internet users). Even more significantly, 75.6% of Internet users who watch TV say that they visit an online site because of something they see on television (that's around 36% of total Internet users).

Among the types of TV programming that indexed especially high in driving viewers to the Web, dramas, comedies, and sports led the way. According to Burst, 75.5% of survey respondents who visit Web sites related to TV programming do so while watching a drama or comedy (that represents about 27% of total Internet users). A more modest 37.1% say they visit a Web site while watching a sports program (about 13.5% of the total). The Burst report emphasized that this Web usage occurred simultaneously with TV viewing.

The Burst survey also found that overall, people seem to be watching slightly less TV than before--with 42.4% saying they watch less TV today than a year ago, and 36.9% saying they watch TV "about the same amount." That first figure goes up among 18- to-24-year-olds, with 50% saying they watch less TV now than they did a year ago.

The findings from Burst Media echo another study of media consumption conducted by IBM earlier this year, which found the Internet is set to pass TV as the most popular at-home medium. According to the IBM survey, 19% of respondents said they spend six or more hours a day on the Internet, versus 9% for TV. Meanwhile, 60% reported that they spend one to four hours using the Internet, versus 66% who spend the time watching TV.