Quarter of U.S. adults visit local TV websites

Around one in four U.S. adults have visited a local television website in the past month, according to a new study, and that figure is expected to rise over the next year.

by Helen Leggatt

Over 118,000 adults across 88 markets were surveyed for The Media Audit’s study, during the period January, 2006 to April, 2007. The findings showed that 27 percent had visited their local television station’s website in the last 30 days.

“Television…stations have been putting renewed effort into their websites, and it is paying off,” said. “Across the nation 73% of adults are going online. With 27% going to local TV websites, this means that nearly 40% of internet users are visiting their local TV websites,” said Bob Jordan, President of The Media Audit, who also predicts that figure to rise over the next year.

The top five markets were Raleigh-Durham, N.C. with 49.7 percent of adults visiting local TV Web sites, followed by Tulsa, Oklahoma (41.6 percent), Denver (40.8 percent) Columbia, S.C. (39.5 percent) and Little Rock, Arkansas (39.4 percent).

“Generally, it is the markets with the highest internet penetration that have the highest percent of TV website visitors,” said Jim Higginbotham, cofounder and head of research for The Media Audit. “It makes sense that if a market has a strong orientation to the internet, then the TV stations will do well.”