The Video Consumer Mapping (VCM) study sponsored by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) also found that the frequency of channel-changing and moving rooms is similar before, during and after commercial breaks.  Only 14% of viewers change channels during the break, compared to 11% just before commercials and 13% just after.  Likewise, room changing patterns were similar: 20% of viewers change rooms during commercials, compared to 19% before and 21% after.

Many TV viewers are simultaneously doing other things, but “multi-tasking” behavior patterns don’t change during commercial breaks. Multi-tasking was found to accompany 45% of all media use, with “care for another” and “meal preparation” being the two top activities.  Fully 55% of viewers were found to be solely engaged with media.

“When commercials come on, people stay with the TV.  They only go to the kitchen if they’re hungry, and they don’t fight over the remote,” said Laura Cowan, Vice President and Media Director of RJC Advertising and Chairperson of the CRE’s Media Consumption & Engagement Committee.  “For years, media professionals have been wrestling with the question of whether viewers actually pay attention to commercial breaks.  This new data, the result of actually embedding observers with a statistically significant number of TV viewers, is a major development in terms of learning what people watch and how they watch it.”

The VCM study was the first ever to involve in-person, computer-assisted observation of the media consumption habits of 376 adults and generated data covering more than three-quarters of a million minutes, or a total of 752 observed days.

Read the full Video Consumer Mapping study press release from the Council for Research Excellence.

In a deeper analysis of audio media titled “How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio,” Nielsen found that that 90% of consumers listen to some form of audio media per day. The 77% who listen to broadcast radio surpass the 37% who listen to CDs and tapes and the 12% who listen to portable audio devices. Broadcast radio also continues to play a major role to all ages, with almost 80 percent of those aged 18 to 34 listening to broadcast radio in an average day.

“There are a lot of critics out there who want to write off broadcast radio, but this analysis of real-time media consumption shows that it continues to play a very strong role,” said Dr. Michael Link, VP of Methodological Research at The Nielsen Company.

While the recent emergence of portable audio devices like the iPod and other MP3 players was considered a threat to traditional forms of audio, this study’s evidence suggests that the new technology has had a positive effect on radio consumption. In fact, radio was found to have a higher reach (82%) among those who listen to portable audio devices, compared to the average reach for all audio consumers.

“This study proves that radio is still a popular medium for the tech-savvy, MP3-playing 18-34 year old consumer,” said Jeff Haley, President and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB). “This groundbreaking observational study of today’s consumer proves that the primary source of new music is the radio.”

The study was conducted by observing the media usage among participants in five DMAs (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Seattle) in the spring and fall of 2008. Many of the broadcast listening trends were consistent with the findings from Nielsen’s 51-market radio ratings released in September

“The results of this study confirm radio’s importance with all socio-economic groups within the United States, as well as with those that consume other audio platforms that had been perceived to be usurping radio’s audio dominance,” said Bob McCurdy, President of Katz Marketing Solutions.

Another key takeaway from the reports is that broadcast radio is the dominant form of audio media at home, work, and in the car.

Other findings highlighted in the report include:

• Audio media exposure has the highest reach among those with higher levels of education and income.
• Approximately 12% of study participants listened to MP3s and iPods for an average of 69 minutes per day, yet eight-in-ten of these individuals also listened to broadcast radio for an average of 97 minutes per day.

Download the full analysis on radio and audio usage.

Learn more about the study in the latest issue of Consumer Insight.

Susan D. Whiting

Of the myriad challenges confronting the television industry, the much-discussed defection by viewers to online and mobile platforms may be the most comforting; simply because it hasn’t happened. Despite the profusion of multimedia computers, broadband Internet connections and portable video devices, the overwhelming majority of Americans are staying right where they are – in front of their TV sets inside their homes.

That is just one finding from a new, year-long Video Consumer Mapping study, which calls into question several current presumptions about media consumption. Conducted by Ball State University’s Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners, and funded by The Nielsen Company, the $3.5 million research project was produced on behalf of the Council for Research Excellence, an independent body of broadcast, cable and advertising professionals and associations.

Though primarily focused on television and video, the study quite literally examined how consumers incorporate all forms of media into their daily lives. To that end, researchers observed, first-hand, 376 individuals in five major markets (Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle) throughout an entire day as they were exposed to visual content across a full spectrum of platforms. Observers also tracked a special Accelerated Panel in the Indianapolis market, whose 100 members specifically engaged with selected new media devices. In all, the more than 950 observed days generated an abundance of comprehensive data related to screens on televisions, computers, cell phones and even GPS navigation systems.

Yet this ability to directly monitor and record individuals’ activities all through their waking hours – in increments as concise as every 10 seconds – also provides unique insights that sometimes starkly contrast with participants’ own recall. In questionnaires completed by panel members a day after being observed, TV use was substantially underreported, although the observation data confirmed earlier Nielsen research that more than 99 percent of all consumer screen time is still spent with television.

On the other hand, respondents significantly over-reported both online video and mobile video use. Though computing has replaced radio as the number two media activity, video on PCs actually averaged just two minutes (slightly more than 0.5 percent) a day; whereas exposure to video on mobile phones was too small to measure without a much larger sample. Indeed, by any measure TV in the home still dominates viewing behavior – whether in terms of daily reach (94 percent) or average daily duration (5.5 hours) – among all adults.

Market researchers know full well to exercise caution when interpreting self-reported information by consumers about their exposure to multiple media, because most people find it hard to accurately gauge the time they spend. One reason may be that TV viewing is such a familiar activity it is easily taken for granted; while watching video on newer technologies is still unique enough to engender disproportionate attention, and possibly skew outcomes.

Thus, it should not be a complete surprise that media multitasking, a skill set regularly associated with 18 to 24-year old “digital natives,” is, in truth, practiced among all age groups 55 and under. Nor, for that matter, is the fact that TV viewers are exposed, on average, to 72 minutes per day of commercials and promos, dispelling the commonly-held notion that audiences avidly avoid most ads in television programs.

Conventional wisdom is frequently based on old assumptions that ignore or dismiss the emergence of new ideas. In this instance, however, some of the new ideas may essentially represent a collective rush to judgment.

For one thing, enduring changes in consumer behavior rarely happen overnight. They tend to be a lot more subversive than revolutionary, becoming apparent only after years of continuous adaptation. For another, predictions about new technologies sometimes underestimate the staying power of the products and systems they seek to replace. Even among digital natives, who are exposed to twice as many different screens as those 65 and older (10 versus 5), live TV occupies the largest share of media time.

Nonetheless, many pundits limit their perspectives to only a handful of big, popular concepts when drawing conclusions, either failing or choosing to overlook a wider choice of possibilities. But in an expanding and simultaneously fragmenting media universe, the capacity to leverage a multitude of resources and opinions is crucial.

This is why the Video Consumer Mapping study substantially enhances the body of knowledge about how people use media. Not only does it capture critical data through extensive direct observation rather than merely count on less reliable responses via diaries or telephone interviews, but it also reflects the diversity of interests and objectives across the Council for Research Excellence. By bringing together what are often competing points of view and applying them to a truly rich array of facts, it exceeds conventional wisdom. The result is both a broader and deeper understanding of just how much the market is changing; and forcefully consumers are driving that change; and how profoundly it affects all parties.

Conducted on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence, the study ran over the course of a year and used a custom media collector program developed by Ball State.  Researchers gathered a wide range of data usage of any of the four categories of screens: traditional TVs (including DVD/VCR and DVR viewing), computers, mobile devices and “all other screens,” including in-cinema movies, GPS and display screens outside of the home.

Key findings of the study include:

• Consumers aged 45-54 racked up an average of more than 9 1/2 hours of screen time a day.

• The average for all other age groups was similar at roughly 8 1/2 hours.

• Computer video watching took on average just two minutes a day.

• TV still dominates, even among those aged 18-24.

• Radio usage has dropped to third, behind TV and computer usage, but ahead of print media.

• TV viewers were exposed to an average of 72 minutes of TV ads and promos every day, dispelling the conventional wisdom that people are channel-hopping or otherwise avoiding ads.

Read the full press release.