• by Wayne Friedman , October 31, 2008

Internet usage does not seem to erode TV viewing.

A new study by Nielsen Media Research found that the heaviest Internet users also happen to be the heaviest users of television. At the same time, the study showed that the lowest users of TV are also the lowest users of the Internet.

For example, the top fifth of Internet users spend four hours and 10 minutes (250 minutes) watching television. Conversely, those TV users who do not use the Internet at all have nearly similar amounts of viewing--three hours and forty minutes of TV viewing (220 minutes).

Other study results reveal that nearly 31% of Internet activity in households takes place while the Internet users are also watching television. Among very heavy users of both TV and Internet, the study noted that more than 80% of people who watched TV and used the Internet that month had simultaneous sessions--they watched TV while being online at the same minute.

The results came from Nielsen's new TV/Internet Convergence Panel, launched earlier this month. Nielsen uses 3,000 people in more than 1,000 homes as a panel to measure the interaction between TV and the Internet. These viewers/users were previously part of Nielsen's live national TV sample, and have agreed to continue to be monitored by Nielsen, or new homes installed specifically for convergence research.

Nielsen says that about half of the Convergence Panel panelists had viewed some streaming content online. The most streaming occurred among female teens (82%). Then came male teens (64%), men 18-34 (57%) and men 35-54 (55%).