Americans turn to Internet for entertainment

Deloitte & Touche’s recent survey, “State of the Media Democracy”, shows an overall increase in the numbers of Americans using the Internet and mobile phones as entertainment sources.

For instance, 40 percent of Americans now watch television shows online, a 50 percent rise compared to the results of the first part of the Deloitte & Touche survey carried out eight months ago.

"I think for advertisers one of the conclusions is you don't make decisions to advertise either on television or the Internet when you want to hit all the demographics, but rather you need to have a multiplatform strategy," said Ken August, vice chairman and national sector leader for Deloitte & Touche's media and entertainment practice. "It shouldn't be an either or proposition."

Mobile phones are also being used for entertainment and, yet again, there has been a 50 percent rise in the number of Americans who do so to 24 percent, since the first part of the survey was carried out.

Over half of Americans now use social networking sites, chat rooms or online messaging and 45 percent have social networking profiles, found the survey.

Select findings of the survey are presented here (.pdf).

Tags: entertainment, Internet usage, mobile phones, television, U.S.