In 2012, a lot of people are using smartphones, tablets and/or laptops while watching TV. But how many, what are they doing, and what might it mean for the TV industry?
It’s a question being chewed over at pretty much every industry conference, and there is no shortage of research companies conducting surveys to try to help them understand viewer habits, and respond accordingly.
Here is a roundup of some of the latest studies, all from 2012:
Somewhere between 75% and 85% of TV viewers use other devices while watching, although a lot of these people are doing unrelated tasks – it’s startling how many surveys come up with around 60% for the percentage of people who are emailing, which is a telling (and somewhat dispiriting) comment on modern working habits.
Of these multi-screeners, how many are actually using their second device to look for something relating to the show they’re watching? Somewhere between 37% and 52%.
Verizon commissioned Harris for a poll of 2,319 Americans who were planning to watch the US presidential debates. It found that 65% said they were going to do it with a smartphone, tablet or computer in their hands/laps.
41% said they were at least “somewhat likely” to use the second screen to fact-check statements by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, while 39% were somewhat likely to follow the reactions of political reporters, and 26% to follow those of comedians (“although it is not clear if this is to track their political punditry or for comic relief”).
This wasn’t a one-way flow of social updates, though. 23% of people planning to watch the debates said they’d post their own reactions on Facebook, and 14% on Twitter.
Google’s multi-screen study included a warning
This is currently one of the most widely-quoted studies of multi-screen habits, thanks in part to its warning to the TV industry that “Television no longer commands our full attention”: 77% of the times people watch TV, it’s with another device.
The study, which involved 1,611 US participants, suggested that 81% of people use smartphones while watching TV, while 66% use laptops or PCs while watching TV. Top activities included emailing (60%), internet browsing (44%), social networking (42%) and playing games (25%).
Google suggested that 22% of “simultaneous usage” of more than one device is complementary – one use is related to the other. It also found that 22% of respondents have searched for something on their smartphone because they saw it on TV – a figure that breaks down to 17% because of an ad, and 7% because of a show (obviously, there’s an overlap).
Ericsson’s study of TV and video habits was based on its ConsumerLab research program, which involves interviewing 100,000 people a year in 40 countries.
Its key finding was that 62% of people use social media while watching TV – 18 percentage points more than 2011’s finding. 40% of them are discussing what they’re currently watching on social networks.
The report noted that social TV isn’t just for the young folk: 30% of 45-59 year-olds “engage in social TV behaviour at least weekly”.
Deloitte’s survey of 4,000 people in the UK dug into second-screen habits, claimed that 24% of all respondents use second screens, although nearly half of 16-24 year-olds use messaging, email, Facebook or Twitter to discuss what they’re watching on TV.
It suggested there is a “muted appetite” for interacting with shows from the second screen, with only one tenth of respondents browsing the internet for information about the show they’re watching.
40% said they like being able to send comments in to a live show, but 68% said they wouldn’t want websites for products, people or adverts that they’ve just seen on TV to “automatically appear on their computer, tablet or smartphone”.
Deloitte’s response was that second-screening has much more of an impact on driving “conversations about a programme, as opposed to interaction with it”, with the company’s Paul Lee suggesting it will be similar to eating in front of the TV: “An everyday experience for some; absolutely unthinkable for others. One thing is certain: it is here for good.”
The Pew Internet study examined what multi-screeners do
Another US study, this, conducted for the Pew Internet & American Life Project with a sample of 2,254 US adults in late March 2012, although published later in the year.
It found that 52% of mobile phone owners are “connected viewers”, using their phones while watching TV. 38% do it to keep themselves occupied during advertising breaks or other pauses, and 23% send texts to friends watching the same show as them.
22% fact-check what they’ve seen on TV, 20% visit websites mentioned in a show, 11% check what other people are saying online about the show they’re watching, and 11% post their own comments from their phone. Meanwhile, 6% said they use their phones to vote for reality show contestants.
This was a study from the Internet Advertising Bureau which found that 63% of TV viewers had used a connected device the last time they watched live TV, with that rising to 66% for people the last time they watched time-shifted TV.
This research also found that most users are emailing, texting and social networking, which aren’t usually related to what they’re watching. However, it claimed that 45% of smartphone and 30% of tablet “multi-screeners” were doing something relating to the current show.
23% of smartphone multi-screeners were texting, emailing or messaging friends about the TV, while 20% were chatting about it on social networks, and 20% actually talking (as in voice calls) about it to friends.
37% of smartphone multi-screeners use their devices to talk about ads they’ve seen, with some intriguing findings that the more devices people use at once, the better they are able to remember ads – as in associate advertisers with specific TV shows.
Nielsen compared habits across four countries
Nielsen’s study of multi-screening habits is also regularly quoted at TV and tech industry conferences, not least because it compared the US, UK, Germany and Italy rather than focusing on one market.
In the US, it found that 41% of smartphone owners use their phones at least once a day while watching TV, while 45% of tablet owners do the same. In the UK, those numbers were 40% and 41% respectively.
Across all countries, the most frequent tablet or smartphone activity was checking email, but Nielsen also dug into US (I think) simultaneous TV and tablet usage for some more depth.
It found that 61% of tablet owners check email while watching TV, 47% visit social networks during a show (and 45% during the ad break), 37% look up information relating to the show they’re watching, 34% check sports scores, and 27% look up product information based on a TV ad.
From The Guardian
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