One hundred days is scarcely enough time to draw any firm conclusions about a new president’s capabilities. Even so, Barack Obama has garnered considerable respect for his media skills. Pundits have dubbed him the “new media president;” while some of the most cynical among them believe his underlying strategy is to end run traditional Washington gatekeepers by communicating more directly with constituents sympathetic to his agenda. But his fans and critics alike may be missing the bigger picture.

It’s true Mr. Obama has readily embraced most things digital. Throughout much of his campaign, his unique online audience bested those of his opponents – Hillary Clinton during the primaries, and John McCain in the general election – sometimes two-to-one. His historic 26-word text message announcing Joe Biden as his running mate reached nearly three million U.S. mobile subscribers, and is considered the nation’s single largest mobile marketing event ever. And since taking the oath of office, he has continued to use the web to blog on vital issues and field questions from the public. 

It should come as no surprise, however, that the president is taking full advantage of new technologies. Given the current state of the media, it would be more astonishing if he didn’t.

American consumers, like their counterparts around the world, have a seemingly insatiable appetite for information, from just about everywhere. Time spent with blogs and social networks, for example, is increasing globally at more than three times the rate of overall Internet growth, particularly among audiences 50 and older. Little wonder then that Mr. Obama is active on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Twitter.

Much has also been made about the president’s penchant for his Blackberry. Yet with the typical U.S. mobile subscriber now sending and receiving more text-based data than voice calls, the ability to “thumb” a message is critical to reaching certain sectors of the population.

Still, it is with video, the emerging lingua franca of the 21st century, that Mr. Obama has probably been most prolific. Americans today watch more video than ever before, primarily on three screens – television, the Internet and cell phones. But despite the growth of online and mobile media, more than 99 percent of screen time is still in front of the TV set in the home. Acknowledging this fact, the president has made ample use of the medium. [see: Video Viewing Up At WhiteHouse.gov]

Tonight, he will hold his third televised press conference, raising his monthly average above any other president since John F. Kennedy. Last month he appeared on both The Tonight Show and 60 Minutes, helping to drive up their ratings to the highest levels in four and 10 years respectively.

Consequently, President Obama has underscored two important facets of an ever-changing media landscape. First, as audiences continually fragment into smaller, self-defined groups, communicating with them will mean working across multiple platforms.  Second, the process is not a zero sum game. At any given time, consumers tend to favor the best available screen, basing their decisions on factors such as convenience, availability of content and the quality of the viewing experience. Thus, new media alone will not be enough to successfully reach all constituencies.

Regardless, Barack Obama will increasingly turn to new and emerging media technologies, as will the rest of the nation. Yet he is hardly the only president to do so. Some 67 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt became the “radio president,” as people began listening to radio to help carry them through the Great Depression. For his part, JFK initiated live, televised news conferences.

Back then as now, neither was the first to use their respective medium, though each was the first to truly master it. Like President Obama today, each was also able, to some degree, to bypass mainstream filters and talk more directly to the public. Since the invention of movable type, that has historically been one of the key advantages of any new medium. What is more, it is not likely to change.

Other findings include:

• Despite 3 in 10 households owning a DVR, live TV continues to be the favorite way to watch TV.
• 54 percent of U.S. households have one or two TVs.
• Hispanic households are more than twice as likely as other groups to download movies.
• Fully 91 percent of households have Internet access, with 57 percent having high-speed connections.
• Viewers can be clustered into eight discrete segments based on gender, age, media consumption levels, ethnicity and social outlook.

“Media has become a digital funhouse: phones deliver TV programming. Computers enable phone calls. Televisions serve as gaming arcades. Consumers access video wherever and whenever they can.  But the fact remains that TV still dominates,” said Dave Thomas, President, Global Media Client Services at Nielsen.

Read a complete review of the state of the media in the current edition of Nielsen’s Consumer Insight.

“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.

The average U.S. household has 2.7 people and 2.9 TVs.  For the quarter ended September 2008, the average American watched 142 hours of TV per month, an increase of five hours from the same period in 2007.  Average Internet usage also increased, to an average of 27 hours per month.

So how has TV managed to maintain its lead? The variety of channels available on cable and satellite is clearly one factor.  There’s a network for virtually every interest.  Second, programming produced for TV is driving growth in other channels like the Internet and mobile.  The ability to download TV shows from iTunes or stream from Hulu.com or TV network site has enabled fans to watch their favorite programs when and where they want.

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.

Sports fans who watched both ESPN and used ESPN.com spent 27% more time watching ESPN TV than TV-only users — and 50% more time using ESPN.com than Internet-only viewers, according to a recent study of ESPN fans’ cross-platform media consumption habits by Nielsen Connections.

Pete Doe, Managing Director, Nielsen Connections, and Glenn Enoch, Vice President, Audience Research, ESPN, reported the findings of that research in the September issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Overall, 123 million people accessed ESPN on TV and another 21 million visited ESPN.com in March 2008, according to Nielsen.  Among households with either TV or Internet access, 84% of users who accessed ESPN content via TV, 10% used both Internet and TV, and 6% used ESPN.com exclusively, Nielsen found. 

Nielsen’s custom research for ESPN used TV/Internet data fusion techniques, paired with Nielsen’s single-source Convergence Panel, to track how ESPN fans access the network’s offerings via TV and the Web. 

Read the full article.

View the latest issue of “Consumer Insight.”

Learn more about how Nielsen tracks media consumption across the three screens: TV, Internet, and Mobile.

Nielsen’s findings show that TV users are watching more TV than ever before (127 hrs, 15 min per month), while spending 9% more time using the Internet (26 hrs, 26 min per month) than last year.

A small but growing number of Internet and mobile phone users are also watching video online (2 hrs, 19 min per month) and on their cell phones (3 hrs, 15 min per month).

“While the number of mobile video users is relatively small at about 4 million, the video usage these early adopters report is impressive, perhaps due to ‘always available’ mobile devices,” John Burbank, chief marketing officer for The Nielsen Company, noted. “It is an early indicator of how this technology is becoming more commonplace among mobile users.”

More broadly – as Brian Stelter, writing in The New York Times Tuesday, concluded – “somehow, despite more distractions than ever, we’re finding even more time to plant ourselves in front of screens.”

Read the complete report.