Americans' time online now equals television viewing

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Americans now spend as much time on the Internet as they do watching TV. So says a new study released by Forrester Research. It detailed that people now spend 121% more time online than they did only five years ago.


Of course much of the movement of eyballs can be attributed to the rise of streaming video services like YouTube and Hulu. 33% of adults now admit to watching streaming video online, up from 18% in 2007.

While people younger than 30 years old have spent more time with the Internet than television for several years, a standout in the survey shows this is the first year that people in older age groups are also doing so. Time spent online for personal use ranges from about 12 hours per week for adults under 30 to about eight hours for people 66+.

Seems people are spending more time in front of screens in general. The amount of time people spend with their televisions remains relatively stable. The survey found that people were spending significantly less time reading printed newspapers and magazines. That may be where many of the eyeballs have gone.

RBR-TVBR observation: It’s a gray area. The rise of the Internet popularity has to include watching traditional television programming online and on mobile devices. The survey also did not distinguish whether viewers watching streaming video on their televisions consider themselves to be watching TV or using the Internet. iPTV viewing is a bit of a wildcard here in crunching any viewing numbers—in what category do you place them?