Internet Grabs Kids’, Teens’ Attention and Affects TV-Watching

Kids’ undivided attention is no longer focused on TV - 64 percent of them go online while watching TV, and 49 percent of U.S. teens do so frequently, anywhere from three times a week to several times a day - according to a Grunwald Associates social-networking study, MarketingCharts writes.

Some 73 percent of TV-online multitasking kids are engaged in “active multitasking,” defined as content in one medium influencing concurrent behavior in another - a 33 percent increase in active multitasking since 2002, Grunwald found. (View active multitasking chart.)

With kids multitasking on TV, online, new media and digital devices, companies need to rethink their marketing strategies, the study concludes. Below, additional findings.

Though kids are using more media, their attention primarily is focused on their online activities:

• 50 percent of nine- 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 email to others they knew were watching the same TV show.
• One-third (33 percent) of 9-17-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.

Online activities are the primary focus of TV-online multitaskers - and an increasing determinant of what they choose to watch:

• 47 percent of kids say they focus their attention primarily online while multitasking between TV and the Internet.
• 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.
• Nearly one in five (17 percent) say they have chosen what to watch on TV based on what they are doing online, up from 10 percent in 2002.

(MarketingCharts has some additional findings.)