Media multiscreening popular in US

NEW YORK: Simultaneous media use has become deeply embedded in the day-to-day habits of US tablet owners, with more than two thirds regularly going online via the devices while they watch TV.

A new media trends report from market researcher Nielsen indicates that 45% of people who own devices such as Apple's market-leading iPad "multi-screen" at least once a day, while 69% do so on multiple occasions during the average week.By contrast, only a small minority (12%) do not mix media in this way.
Certain online activities proved more popular than others among tablet owners, according to the Nielsen report. A majority (61%) said they had checked their email on their tablet while watching TV, and 47% accessed their social media profiles.Encouragingly for advertisers, over one in three (37%) said they had looked up information related to the TV programme they were watching on their tablets, while more than one in five (22%) also said they had looked up coupons or deals related to a TV ad as they watched.Nielsen also highlighted other links between TV ads and online actions elsewhere in its report.By age group, 25 to 54-year-olds were found to be the cohort most likely to purchase products via the internet after seeing them on TV, achieving an index score of 129 against the neutral level of 100.But adoption rates among over-55s were far lower, indexing at just 70. Women (112) were also found to be far more likely than men (86) to perform this action.

 Separately, Nielsen found that women take a higher share of primetime TV viewing in all genres except for sports shows, and were also far more likely to view timeshifted shows.

 Content broadcased via TIVO and other on-demand services accounted for 16.3% of females' total viewing hours, compared to males' 13.7%.

Data sourced from Nielsen; additional content by Warc staff, 1 May 2012