Don't be fooled; he's surfing

Media multitasking and "double-dipping" — watching TV while surfing the internet — are common among online adults in the United States and Britain, finds a survey by Harris Interactive conducted on behalf of online video search engine Blinkx, writes MarketingCharts.

Below, findings from the study.

Multitasking

Television should not fear that online video will steal away viewers, because it's not an either/or proposition. That is, people use the web as an accompaniment to TV:

• 78 percent of US online adults have gone online while watching TV.
• 35 percent report doing so often or always.

Double-Dipping

Double-dippers are adults who enjoy surfing the internet while watching television:

• 62 percent look for content unrelated to what they're watching.
• 25 percent seek information specific to that programming, such as…
  • Profiles of actors (51 percent look for such info)
  • Products/services that appeared in or were advertised during the program (40 percent)
  • Related upcoming events (39 percent)

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.

About the survey: Harris Interactive fielded the online survey on behalf of blinkx Feb. 13-18, 2008 among nationwide cross-sections of 2,471 adults age 18+ in the United States and 2,228 adults aged 16+ in Great Britain. Both sets of data were weighted to be representative of the population of online adults in each country.