Online TV is also beginning to make its mark.  Almost half of urban Internet users reported viewing TV content online or downloaded, with 12 percent saying they did so frequently.

“Radio has been highly successful at reinventing itself by embracing the online delivery channel.  TV has a similar opportunity as more of the country has access to high speed connections,” said Tony Marlow, Research Director, Nielsen Online.

While almost a quarter of Australian Internet users still have connection speeds lower than 1.5 mbps, 20 percent intend to upgrade their connections in 2009.

Marlow believes that the trends observed in metropolitan areas provide insight into anticipated trends in regional and rural areas where connection speeds have yet to catch up to their city counterparts.  “If we look at Australia as a whole, we currently lag other developed nations in what we consider to be fast Internet connectivity,” he concluded.

Read the full press release outlining online trends in Australia here.

“The American fascination with television and other video content is not easing up, as consumers keep turning to TV, Internet and Mobile at record levels,” said Susan Whiting, Nielsen’s vice chair.  “Viewers appear to be choosing the best screen available for their video consumption, weightinga variety of factors, including convenience, quality and access.  It is clear that TV remains the main vehicle for viewing video, although online and mobile platforms are an increasingly important complement to live home-based television.”

Other notable facts from the report include:

• Except for the teenage years, viewing of traditional television increases with age; the use of video on the Internet peaks among young adults while viewing mobile video is highest in the teen years.
• Men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and TV more than men.
• The work day (M-F, 9am to 5pm) continues to be primetime for Internet video.

To read the entire press release, click here.

As of Q3 2008, the average American watched approximately 142 hours of TV per month — five hours more than they watched in a typical month during the same period a year ago.

Americans who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, and people who used a mobile phone spent 3 hours a month watching mobile video.

Men were more likely than women to watch via mobile phone, while women were more likely then men to watch video online.

DVR usage was up significantly (52.5%) in Q3 2008, compared with Q3 2007.  Americans spent more than six hours per month watching timeshifted TV — double the amount of time they spent watching video online.  The only exception: 18-24 year-olds, who consumed more video online (four hours, 48 minutes) than via DVR (four hours, 36 minutes).

During the 2007-08 television season, the average U.S. household took in eight hours and 18 minutes of TV per day, a record high since Nielsen started measuring television in the 1950’s.

“TV use is at an all-time high, yet people are also using the Internet more often — 31% of which is happening simultaneously,” Susan Whiting, vice chairperson, Nielsen, noted.

Download the report.

Learn more about viewing across the “three screens” – view Manish Bhatia, of Nielsen, addressing the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s December 2008 forum.

One-third of the adult broadband users (35%) surveyed for the Nielsen-CTAM study said they had watched at least one television program originally shown on TV via the Internet. Of those who sought out video content online, 87% watched television programs directly from a TV network website, and 82% reported that they went online to find a specific television program that they had missed when it first aired on TV.

Asked to choose among seventeen online content categories, online television viewers said they prefer to watch shorter video clips when they go online. Movie trailers (53%), user generated videos (45%), music videos and general news segments (37%), comedy programs (31%), and sports clips (31%) were respondents’ top choices.

View the Full Nielsen Release.