Study: Internet Influences What Kids in the U.S. Watch on TV

BETHESDA, March 10:
According to a study by independent research firm Grunwald Associates,
television no longer captures the undivided attention of kids in the U.S., with
64 percent of kids going online while watching television, and Internet
activity becoming a growing factor in what they choose to watch.

According to the study,
titled Kids' Social Networking Study, the influence of the Internet on the television-viewing habits of
kids is more apparent, with 17 percent reporting that they have chosen what to
watch on TV based on what they are doing online, up from 10 percent in 2002.

Nearly half of teens (49
percent) report that they go online frequently while watching television,
anywhere from three times a week to several times a day. Grunwald Associates
notes that 50 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds visit websites they see on TV even
as they continue to watch; 45 percent of teens have sent instant messages or
e-mail to others they knew were watching the same TV show; and one-third (33
percent) of 9- to 17-year-olds say they have participated in online polls,
entered contests, played online games or other online activities that
television programs have directed them to while they are watching. Forty-seven
percent of kids say they focus their attention primarily online while
multitasking between TV and the Internet, and 42 percent say they focus on TV
and online activities equally. Only 11 percent of kids say that TV holds their
primary attention while multitasking.

Additionally, the study
found that 73 percent of TV-online multitasking kids are engaged in
"active multitasking," defined by Grunwald Associates as content in
one medium influencing concurrent behavior in another. This trend represents a
33-percent increase in active multitasking since 2002. Multitasking can include
using the Internet, cell phones, MP3 players and other new media while watching
television.

"Active multitasking
and social networking present a tremendous opportunity to inform, engage and
empower kids more deeply than ever before," said Peter Grunwald, the
founder and president of Grunwald Associates. "At the same time, it's
important for commercial efforts to be credible and respect kids'
intelligence—and the content they produce. Kids are using
social-networking tools to create personal content and share their opinions
with great speed, passion and influence."

The study also examines
how kids are using online and handheld social-networking tools—and how
frequently. The study presents the data in numerous psychographic and
demographic sets, including data gathered from parents and school-district
administrators. It found that kids are more than passive consumers of media,
with 27 percent of all 9- to 17-year-old kids maintaining blogs, pages or other
online spaces of their own and uploading content such as articles, audio,
video, polls, quizzes and site ideas that they have created to publicly
available websites, at least three times a week.

In addition, 27 percent of
kids surveyed are heavy users of social-networking sites and services. These
heavy users are not just shaping Internet content but also influencing the
online activities of their peers. Of these heavy users, 66 percent recruit
their peers to visit their favorite sites, 48 percent promote new sites and
features online to their peers and 37 percent recommend products to their peers
and keep up with the latest brands.

The Kids' Social
Networking Study is comprised of
three parallel surveys conducted in the U.S.: an online survey of 1,277 9- to
17-year-olds, an online survey of 1,039 parents and telephone interviews with
250 school district leaders who make decisions on Internet policy.

—By Irene Lew