Nielsen Confirms Second-Screen Use is Rising

NEW YORK: Almost half of smartphone and tablet owners are using their devices for second-screen activities while watching television, Nielsen reveals in its latest survey.

The study of connected-device owners found that 46-percent of smartphone users and 43 percent of tablet users are engaging in daily second-screen activity with those devices. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of tablet and smartphone owners said they used these second screens multiple times a week during the first quarter of this year.

General web searches (76 percent) and general web browsing (68 percent) are the main second-screen activities, but almost half of tablet owners are also using the web to look up info on what they’re watching. Visiting a social-networking site was also a popular second-screen activity, and at least one-fifth spent time reading social-media discussions about the program they were viewing. Interacting with a show or posting a comment about it are more common activities among tablet owners than smartphone owners. The research also found that some multiscreen users watched a program because of something they read in social media.