Jupiter: TV Time and Online Time Now Equal

A new study from Jupiter Research reports that U.S. consumers now spend as much time online - 14 hours a week! - as they spend watching television.

A new study from JupiterResearch shows that the Internet is rapidly becoming the most important media format for U.S. consumers: according to Jupiter, U.S. consumers now spend an average of 14 hour per week online, the same amount of time they spend watching television.

The report shows that Internet use is displacing traditional print media (books, magazines, and newspapers), radio, and even television as the U.S. consumers’ preferred media outlet. Jupiter found that books are seeing the most significant decline, with 37 percent of online users surveyed reporting that they spend less time reading books because of the amount of time they spend online.

Not surprisingly, Jupiter also found that the most intense online users are more likely to take advantage of information-management and aggregation technologies, such as streaming radio and RSS.

“Even the most intensive users of newspapers and magazines spend less time reading these publications than they do online or watching TV,” said Barry Parr. “TV and newspaper companies risk losing an entire generation of users unless they immediately start promoting their online products.”

David Schatsky, Senior Vice President of Research at JupiterResearch, added: “Multi-channel media companies must recognize the vital importance of the Internet, and then go beyond replicating their offline properties to tailor their online strategy to the distinctive characteristics and preferences of online audiences.”