New study shows the ratio of viewer focus when in front of multiple screens

Be honest, do you ever watch television and work on a laptop, use your smartphone, or are on your tablet at the same time? Truthfully, you are not alone. eMarketer reported on a November 2013 survey conducted by TiVo. Good news for the television industry, even though there is competition with viewers’ eyes when they are multi-screening, viewers tend to focus the most on TV.

Results from the study: Devices operated simultaneously while watching television according to US TV viewers.

Smartphone:

-         24% “almost always” use the smartphone while watching TV

-         61% have “ever” used the smartphone while watching TV

Tablet:

-         19% “almost always”

-         37% “ever”

Laptop/netbook:

-         11% “almost always”

-         49% “ever”

Desktop computer:

-         6% “almost always”

-         18% “ever”

Portable game system:

-         1% “almost always”

-         6% “ever”

The study also showed that approximately 27% of surveyors used a second device to “search the internet for information” while watching television. The next highest ranking reason was to “use social media sites to read what people are saying” at 7%. Clearly, looking for information was the biggest reason.