Study: Television still tops with consumers

Don't flip that remote just yet. Online video may be a hot commodity but marketers shouldn't count out television advertising, especially as part of a cross promotional campaign. According to a recent report from the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) by Ball State University's Center for Media Design (CMD) and Sequent Partners young baby boomers are still consuming most of their weekly video from television sources.

by Kristina Knight

The study found that in consumers between 45 and 54 years of age traditional television is still the go-to video resource. These consumers also consume the most video time at just over 9.5 hours per day; most other consumers consume a slightly less 8.5 hours of television per day.

"It's not a study about TV or the Web or any other medium - it's about how, where, how often and for how long consumers are exposed to all media," said Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research for Ball State's CMD. "Among the things we learned from those experiences is that people generally cannot report accurately how much time they spend with media. Some media tend to be over-reported whereas others tend to be under-reported - sometimes to an alarming extent. Clearly, that kind of variance puts in question one's ability to draw meaningful conclusions, and it convinced us that the observational method is the only real way to achieve accurate and reliable results."

Other interesting findings in the report include:

• Online/computer video consumption remains low, taking up about 0.5% of a consumer's daily viewing habits
• Computer use now outstrips radio listening, even in large metropolitan areas
• Those who watch television are exposed to more than 1 hour each viewing day of ads, dispelling the 'channel-surfing' myth
• Video consumption, thanks to online outlets, could double over the next few years

Tags: online advertising, online video, television, video advertising, video consumption