Thursday, 13 Octorber 2011

Four out of ten smartphone and tablet owners across the U.S. access their devices each day while watching television according to new data published by Nielsen. Among roughly 7,500 consumers connected device owners surveyed during the second quarter of 2011, only 14 percent of e-reader owners access those devices during their daily TV look-in, and 45 percent of e-reader users said they never multitask between the two screens.

The Nielsen study indicates that consumer behaviors change little regardless of whether a television program is in commercial break. Sixty percent of smartphone and tablet owners turn to their device to check email during a program, and 59 percent check their messages during commercials. Forty-six percent surfed the web for unrelated information during a broadcast, and 45 percent surfed for unrelated content during commercials--in addition, 42 percent of respondents access social networking sites during a show, and another 42 percent visit those sites during commercials.

Television advertising is directly impacting consumer behaviors as well, Nielsen adds. Nineteen percent of smartphone and tablet owners look up product information related to an onscreen ad, and 13 percent seek out coupons or ads related to a promo they just viewed.