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Internet More Popular Than TV?
A new study from IDC indicates that on average people spend 32.7 hours online a week and only 16.4 hours watching television. Newspapers and magazines get only 3.9 hours of our attention. IDC surveyed 992 Americans aged 15 years and older.
But does this actually mean that the Internet is twice as popular as television? I wouldn’t say that just yet. The total weekly media consumption comes to 70.6 hours in the survey. The press release also doesn’t indicate whether there was simultaneous media consumption.
Barring simultaneous consumption, with seven hours of sleep a night and eight hours of work a day, that leaves about an hour a day for everything other than media consumption. I’d like to think that even I don’t consume that much media in my spare time. The study doesn’t specify whether these hours are only “leisure” time—and I’m gonna bet that most people can’t get away with channel surfing during work.
The study also looked at online activities:
The data also show that consumers tend to use the media they grew up with. The older the respondents, the more they consume TV, newspapers, and magazines; the younger they are, the more the Internet displaces usage of traditional media. Using search engines (84% of respondents), mapping and navigation services (83%), personal research (77%), and using email (76%) are the most frequent online activities.
The 16% that didn’t use search engines would have said yes had the question said “Google” or “Yahoo.” (I’m not entirely joking—I was explaining what I do for my grandfather once. I asked him if he used search engines. He said he didn’t. I asked him if he used Google. He said he did.)
Odd, though, since I know that the stats I gave to clients two years ago said that 88% of Internet users used search engines (NFO Research, though the discrepancy there is probably within the margin of error) and even more used email (90% to 95%). I find it hard to imagine that nearly a quarter of American Internet users aren’t using email at all.
Is the Internet more popular than television? Apparently. But it’s also more portable and more universally accessible (especially from work). Is this even a fair fight?
Jordan McCollum post from Marketing Pilgrim.
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98 Responses to “Internet More Popular Than TV?”
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The internet for my family is defiantly more popular in my house. On average my wife, daughter, son and I watch an estimate of around 14 hours of TV in week and spend at least 40+ hours per week on the net.
I DVR everything I watch on television, but even so I suppose that I am actually online more than I am in front of the TV. How does one tally the hours you are watching TV while surfing the net on your laptop?
I certainly spend more time in front of a computer, the wifes not to mad about the idea. I do believe that sitting on the internet can make you smarter where TV never offered this. I’m now a genius!
I’m spending more time on internet…a lot to watch in the internet like youtube or online movies. internet has the complete infos
We have 4 computers in our house and all of us use our computers sometimes nearly all day. I can easily go an entire day without television but not without the internet.
i am definately one who prefer internet than TV and spend more time on Internet…
but I think it is bias because work has increase the ussage of computer…which put almost 8 hours day work to internet
Since I got a new laptop I stop watching tv and turn my face to internet because on internet you can find many stuffs to do, you do can even watch tv online.
Before, I watch about 3-4 hours per day tv but now I watch 1 hour and about 3-4 hours per day for internet.
This is a great stat. and I believe it to be true.
Richard A. Smith president of Realogy Corp. – the largest residential real estate broker in the United States – said “the portion of his Coldwell banker and Century 21 branding budget devoted to newspaper will shrink by as much as two-thirds next year compared to 2006 as spending trends move online.”
Tim Mullaney, Bloomberg, July 18th 2007
It looks like we are all in the right business!
I also gave jakeldaily a shout out the other week when I sent a shirt to shoemoney.
The internet for me is certainly much more popular then TV. I am figuring to drop my TV permanently. Who needs a TV these days?
I hardly spend any time before the television set. On the other hand, my wife spends as much time, perhaps a little less, before it than I do sitting before my computer. In my house therefore the percentage split is likely to be 55/45 or 60/40. It would have been better had the survey given full definitions.
Now I watch TV with a computer on my shoulders…
For my daughter and I this is even more skewed. We are about 50 hours internet, 3 hours tv, 0 newspaper, 2 hours mags. Internet is taking over all aspects of our entertainment, info, and more.
T.V. is obsolete now. I only watch movies on my t.v., everything else is on my computer. I feel more involved, I can learn more, and earn more. There really isn’t much productivity going on when you are watching T.V.. Also, with all of these social networking communities on the rise, many people spend hours a day keeping in touch with friends and being nosey. Definitely internet for the win.
Yes the internet is now indispensible and i for one cannot imagine my life without it. But i still would not say that it is more populrar than TV, simply because TV is so much more widely used.
I think the internet has to become much more widespread for it to become more popular thanthe TV
The problem with this is most people are getting the same content. They just get it from a different source ie the internet. A lot of people also watch television on their computer.
I couldn’t agree more. Even for me, after i first get my internet connection, i totally forgot about my TV, or my DVD player. Instead i only watch streaming video or just download the movie. Maybe its because with internet you can get all of information, entertainment from only one source and that makes it easy. There is no need for DVD anymore..Internet is the answer..
We don’t have TV at home, we don’t even like it:D
I dont think that the internet is going to replace the TV anytime soon, but i do know that i cannot imagine my life without the internet.
My TV watching definitely stays in the realm of 3-5 hours a week. That’s being generous.
I believe this is true. I go online for one thing and end up spending over an hour easily. TV is not very good these days except for the occaisonal sports event. I have not gotten into looking at movies on the computer or anything like that but can you imagine how much time we would spend if this became the norm.
I watch TV one hour a week. I was surprised when I became aware of it. With the sites like Veoh.com, Torrentspy and thousands of blogs, TV doesnt have much chance.
On internet, you control the content and when you want to see it. Thats unbeatable for me.
I’m not surprised. On the net i watch what i want, when i want. Can’t even remember the last time i watched tv.
I have been trying to watch the first season of Lost on my PC and for some reason it is not letting me.
Does anyone know what it could be?
I agree internet is more popular than tv, the reason is- in my opinion, the show that will be shown in the tv, will also be seen on the internet.. and not only that there are also other things you can learn from it..
of corse yes.
It’s so true; I can even relate this to myself, I watch hardly any TV now compared to what I used to, I seem to spend all day on the internet, even if I’m just staring at the same page for hours, there’s just so much to explore, not to mention you can watch TV on the internet… any show any time, it’s the freedom and flexibility which makes it so addictive I reckon.
It’s very true that internet is more popular than any other media.it gives everything, be it a fact,news,entertainment,glamor.
I think the internet will only increase in popularity.
Guys, did you really need a researches to confirm that internet is more popular than TV? There are no more doubts! Digital age had began…
Among my friends, this is definitely true. Among some of the people I work with, I don’t think it is. It really depends on who you talk to.
Internet has taken world by strom .I think many people like to be on internet rather than watching tv.I my self do the same and i think its definetly better than idiot box.
I used to be a big TV fan. Now I watch a smattering of shows and only after I’m too tired to look at the moniter on my computer for one more second. I could live without my tv faster than I could live without my computer!
Yes, internet is more popular than tv now. For me, I hardly watch TV now, but, I can sit in front of the computer for hours.
Among some of the people I work with, I don’t think it is. It really depends on who you talk to.
I agree that internet is popular to those people who wanted information. TV can only give you entertainment while internet can give you info and entertainment according to your choice.
Like many others have stated, we Tivo everything in this house so we can whiz thru it quickly. We are to the point where we do more than ever on the internet, though…banking, school, work, and pleasure. So I can see how the shift from TV to the internet can very easily take place!
I do agree that internet is now very popular and its going to much more popular
now a days and tv cannt effort that. but tv is still more popular then internet but be sure that internet will overcame that and be more popular then tv some day. I can tell about when I didnt have the internet that time I passed my time through watching tv and now I have internet and most of the time I keep stay my time with internet and last couple of days I didnt watched tv for a second.
It’s not very surprising consider the internet is pretty much everything on the tip of your fingers rather than television which is more scheduled and restrictive. In my mind, at least people are not just watching but also reading a bunch of stuff on the internet and that’s always a plus.
I dislike web TV – constantly some mistakes
Classical TV better!
well I definitly ues more internet then tv
I am also one of those who prefers internet to TV, there are days where I do not watch TV at all :O
ha, less than 5 hours weekly for me to stay in front of TV I think
Yes I like drama/movie, but most of the time I prefer to download and watch them from Internet 
Right now, I think TV is still powerful than internet because one should learn first and take away the technophobia in order to widen the internet usage.
I wouldn’t doubt it, I’m on the internet WAY more than I’m watching TV.
There is no doubt in popularity of Internet then Tv bcoz any body can get what they want on a single click but Tv is not useful in such manner.
Even i find Internet undeniably more popular than TV!! I hardly watch TV eversince i’ve got a laptop!! Because whatever you get on TV, well… it’s incomparable to the amount of information that you can get on Internet! Personally i find that nowadays, it’s better to invest in a PC, rather that a new TV!
Internet is more informational than TV. it is hub of information’s and TV is “idiot box”
Internet is really more popular than TV. But in my opinion you can be comfortable and relaxed while watching TV, whereas when using the Internet you tend to stay alert.
T.V.? What’s that? Oooooh yea.. that boxy thing out in the living room? I remember that… sorry, been at the computer so long I almost forgot…
This is interesting. It’s something I’ve long suspected was happening but didn’t have any confirmation of.
The internet is also eating into print media in a huge way. Online classiifieds particularly are having an impact.
Here in Australia one of the biggest media companies, Fairfax, just sacked hundreds of journos. Seems that the classified listings, which were responsible for a big chunk of the money earned, have been gutted by cheaper (and often free) online alternatives.
I suspect this whole process has a long way to go yet.
this is a growing trend. in few years time more and more people will dedicate more time to surf the net rather than watch tv. specially with the web developers aiming at vedio sort of sites with the upcoming .TV extension
The mainstream consumers are seeking more control on the entertainment stuff , the audience prefer to consume more consolidated, trustworthy and community driven interactive content. The internet provide them greater leverage to this while on TV they don’t have much control over what’s on.
Wow this is incredible people said this was going to happen, am not sure if this is a good or bad thing?!
hi,
i am totally agree with Paul.
thanks.
Analysts from TNS surveyed more than 1,000 adults aged 16 to 64 for the Internet search engine Google. They found that, on average, we spend 164 minutes online every day compared to 148 minutes watching television.
Men are the biggest users of the Internet, averaging 172 minutes a day compared to 156 minutes a day for women.Government figures from the Office of National Statistics show that we spend just 37.5 days a year watching television.
T.V. is obsolete now. I only watch movies on my t.v., everything else is on my computer. I feel more involved, I can learn more, and earn more. There really isn’t much productivity going on when you are watching T.V.. Also, with all of these social networking communities on the rise, many people spend hours a day keeping in touch with friends and being nosey. Definitely internet for the win.
In today’s active lifestyle surfing the Internet is more popular than watching television. The Internet is a better source of news and entertainment than programmes on television. The information availability is the most desirable feature of the Internet, with online shopping and chat as the most popular. In short there are just not enough hours in a day to explore all the things in the Net. In comparison TV is nowhere near to it.
hmmmmmmmmmmm, let me guess,, see we can use both thing on diffrent way,,, but accoriding to me all Television stuff no gonna to include in internet and we can watch the video and muvi on internet and we can also see the add on internet.. so internet is more popular than t.v….!!!!!!!
Thanks for the info.
I also gave jakeldaily a shout out the other week when I sent a shirt to shoemoney.
The Internet is a better source of news and entertainment than programmes on television. The information availability is the most desirable feature of the Internet, with online shopping and chat as the most popular.
Well, soon, we’ll be watching TV online. Internet will do everything in no time IMO…
Cody
A lot of people go online at work too so you can’t really just say “8 hours at work.”
Although then you have to consider most people have a commute to and from work too.
Anyway for me personally, it’s not even close. There’s almost nothing worth watching on television. I watch maybe an hour or two of TV a week compared to … I don’t even know. 70 hours a week online?
the funny thing is that in about 10-15 years or so we will marvel at the early 21st century when there was a difference between “TV” and “the internet”. or that there were even things called “TV” and “the internet”.
we will all just have our “thing” that we carry around with us in our pockets that does everything and that plugs into the bigger version at home so that we can see a bigger picture and hear better sound with whatever we are doing.
Ah well, soon we’ll be living virtual lives. Not saying the Internet is bad, but still… Hmmm
in the modern age internet fulfill what you want. and you can know anything you want. if you have internet you can also earn money at home.
I would defiantly say yes, I hardly ever watch tv anymore most of my time is online and my tv is mainly just use for movies now.
yes I agree , internet is the most popular than others.
In this digital age, you can safely say that the internet is definitely more popular than TV. People use the TV to watch shows only while the internet can be used for variety of reasons such as surfing, watching videos, listening to music, chatting, e-mailing, make money, play games etc. The total time spent by adding up all the internet activities done would definitely exceed that of just watching TV.
I would not personally be at all surprissed, if in 20 years we find that TV has been fully assimulated into the vastness of the Computer’s Internet Family.
Frank
The Internet is a lot more popular than TV these days, but agree that it really isn’t a fair fight when you consider people access the Internet during work or even work online completely.
hi,
now a day’s internet is more popular than TV.
So i m totally agree for above sentance.
thanks a lot for sharing the information.
i have been in Krete (Hrakleio) too. The only problem is that you can’t decide which is the best place to go each year
You look like a lucky guy !! In more ways than one :0 I hope to get to Greece someday too.
People use the TV to watch shows only while the internet can be used for variety of reasons such as surfing, watching videos, listening to music, chatting, e-mailing, make money, play games etc. The total time spent by adding up all the internet activities done would definitely exceed that of just watching TV.
I do believe that sitting on the internet can make you smarter where TV never offered this.The Internet is a lot more popular than TV these days,
For some reason I believe that TV is the most important than internet. I know internet can entertain us so much because it has a lot of features like surfing net, downloading video, playing computer games. But we have to think TV is the first thing that we love to do and until now people love to watch TV. But it is nice to use computer because it can help you by doing a good project.
The interesting thing is that this study would have been ridiculous 10 years ago. What then can we expect in the upcoming 10 years. Something equally as shocking I would imagine.
It certainly is in my house. I don’t have a TV license so never watch TV. The only thing I have is the internet and Wii. I use the Wii for online gaming.
Can’t get much more internet addicted than that!
Yes the internet is more popular, you can watch movies, tv shows, and basiccally anything on the internet, some peole say the internet is out future, e-mail will replace regular mail.
Internet more popular than the TV in 2010. If current growth trends continue, the Internet will overtake traditional TV as the most consumed form of media …
At kids for sure the internet is more popular. The Internet is outpacing the TV for kids between 10 and 14 years of age. This, according to a study by DoubleClick Performics the SEM company, which found that 83 percent of Internet users in this age bracket spent an hour or more online a day, but only 68 percent spent that much time watching television.
TV is definitely getting old nowadays. I mean, back in 90’s it was crazy, and everyone watch watching it, but since the Internet came out, the world has changed completely.
Now using the Internet you can do pretty much anything, while with TV, you can do only what? Watch different channels? And that’s it!
People use the TV to watch shows only while the internet can be used for variety of reasons such as surfing, watching videos, listening to music, chatting, e-mailing, make money, play games etc. The total time spent by adding up all the internet activities done would definitely exceed that of just watching TV.
Internet more popular than the TV in 2010.For some reason I believe that TV is the most important than internet. I know internet can entertain us so much because it has a lot of features like surfing net, downloading video, playing computer games. But we have to think TV is the first thing that we love to do and until now people love to watch TV. But it is nice to use computer because it can help you by doing a good project.
I think it all depends on the age group. for my parents age (retired), i doubt the internet is more popular. but for the other end of the spectrum, it might certainly.
It’s true people are spending more time on net than TV. I mostly spend my time on net. I enjoy a lot sharing my views and reading others.
yes it matters to the age group also but if the older people have knowledge to open pc and chat with others then they enjoy more on nternet
This does not surprise me, everyone has turned off the tube to go and watch Youtube. I sometimes myself prefer the internet over television.
I completely stop watching TV and I am using only computer…
In my opinion internet is much more better than TV.I am definitely one who prefer internet than TV and spend more time on Internet…We can get more information from internet than TV.
A very good article., there sure is a difference between genrations.
There are vast differences between the T.V. generation and the Internet generation.
Thanks for sharing great content.
Josh, Orlando.
Internet is definitely bigger than tv now. People like the convenience, and u dont have to watch freakin commercials.
Yeah, but now they’re starting to put commercials on youtube videos so there is somewhat of a threat there.
I don’t own a television and haven’t for almost a decade. I can not do without my internet though. I will die without it! When are we going to see some fresh posts on your blog, mister?