Multi-tasking Media Users

By Bill Cherry

What will Internet and television viewing habits be like in the future? According to Nielson Media Research there are 111,400,000 TV households in the United States. By the year 2050 TV households will grow to over 163,700,000. Not only will the number of TV households increase, but the viewing habits will also evolve into new models.

Currently, there are approximately 146 million internet users in the United States. Of those 146 million users, over 70% of Internet users watch TV while online. According to Bigresearch July 2006, 102 million Internet users watch television while they are on the net. Over 89 million listen to the radio, 52 million read magazines, and 49 million read the newspaper while using the Internet.

The trend of multitasking while involved with the Internet or television will change viewing and usage habits during the next ten years. This will further fracture television viewing audience similar to the way cable diluted the television audiences.

The growing number of multitasking viewers will provide a much more challenging task for advertisers. Advertising messages are extremely difficult to be remembered today, but as viewers multitask with Internet, television, and other media, message recall will become much more difficult for users. Marketers need to start planning now for the multitasking media users.