Television still king of media, new IPA survey reveals

by Daniel Farey-Jones and Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 23-Mar-06, 15:30

LONDON – The internet is still lagging behind TV as the medium we spend most time with, even among the 15-24 age group, according to the new TouchPoints survey results from the IPA.

The survey found that people in the 15-24 age group typically spend two hours a day using the internet, compared with 3.2 hours spent watching television on an average weekday.

Overall, the media hierarchy for all adults showed that television is still king, with an average of 3.9 hours a day being watched. This is followed by 1.3 hours spent on radio and 0.8 on the internet.

It contradicts research published earlier this month, which showed that the average internet user spends 41 days online each year, the equivalent of 164 minutes a day, compared with 37 days each year or 148 minutes each day spent watching TV.

However, the IPA said that this research, commissioned by Google and carried out by TNS, was part of an omnibus survey, whereas the IPA research is based on a dedicated diary-based survey, collecting all media usage.

The long-awaited TouchPoints survey covered a week in the life of 5,000 people representative of the UK's adult population in late 2005.

It is designed to survey people's media consumption, including SMS, direct mail and the internet, their lifestyles and their opinions.

Although young adults aged 16-25 are enthusiastic text message users, 70% ignore all commercial texts they receive. For communicating with people, they love electronic media -- using 48% SMS, 28% email and 20% internet instant messaging and only 5% pen and paper.

While texting, 32% of young adults are also watching TV, 18% are also listening to the radio, 10% are also on the internet and 6% are reading.

Interactive ads were liked as an idea by 29% of this age group, but by only 14% of the whole survey.

Eleven media planning and buying agencies and 10 media owners provided financial backing to fund the research project. More research will be released later this year, and there are plans to run a second TouchPoints survey in 2007.

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