• by Fern Siegel , December 5, 2007

The young work harder--at least when it comes to watching TV.

According to a Nielsen study, 56% of 18- to-34-year-old adults make a concerted effort to watch TV. Rather than forfeit an episode of a favorite show, they rely on DVRs, the Web, VOD and MP3 players, versus 21% of those over 55. More than 1,500 adults were surveyed in October at the CBS Television City facility in Las Vegas.

Younger viewers have long been considered early digital adopters, but all age groups are bridging the technology divide. To Steve McGowan, Nielsen senior vice president, client research initiatives, the study is a glimpse into the future. He says the findings will have "tremendous implications on how networks schedule and distribute their programming."

It wasn't just tech gear that benefited from the findings. There were Web site winners, too. When viewers go online to watch streaming TV, 50% prefer ABC.com to any other site. The second- and third-most popular sites--NBC.com and CBS.com--delivered 41% and 37%, respectively.

While the findings don't suggest a gender gap in TV watching, a slightly larger proportion of men versus women--32% to 27%--rely on DVRs. One caveat: the DVR penetration in Las Vegas, the test city, was twice as large as Nielsen's national TV panel.

Finally, what drove awareness of Web-based options wasn't high-speed home access, but whether respondents had loaded iTunes on their home PCs. Twenty-five percent of those surveyed said they had watched a full-length episode streamed online in the past three months; 18- to-34-year-olds led the charge at 39% versus 11% for those over 55.