For the first time ever Australians are spending more time online than watching TV, according to new research.
The latest Nielsen Online poll shows Australians are spending around 13.7 hours per week surfing the net, while average TV viewing time was about 13.3 hours per week.
The results are part of the 10th Australian Internet and Technology Report which looks at the profile of internet users, online behaviours, ownership of technologies and media consumption habits.
The report revealed an increase in cross media consumption, with more than half of Australia’s internet users (58%) saying they have watched TV while online and 48% have used the internet while listening to the radio.
“This means that in recent years Australians have been increasingly consuming more than one medium at a time, commonly resulting in a fragmented span of attention. While use of the internet continued to grow this year, for the first time ever this was not accompanied by an increase for TV consumption – a possible early warning sign that we are approaching the feared media saturation point,” Tony Marlow, associate research director, Asia Pacific for Nielsen Online said.
On average, Australians are spending 84.4 hours per week across a range of media and leisure activities, up from 71.4 hours in the previous 12 months.
Australia’s internet participation has reached maturity with only a 1% increase of uptake in the past 12 months to 80%.
The majority of Australian internet users access the internet from home (92%), while around one third (34%) said they accessed it from work. The most popular online activities were email (98%), banking (72%) and accessing news, sport and weather sites (72%). Growth areas in online activities in the year ahead are expected to be accommodation bookings and instant messaging, both of which are predicted to growth by around 20%.
