Dive Brief:
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While the average viewer spends some two hours and 27 minutes watching television, the average smartphone user edges him out, spending 2 hours and 31 minutes, according to a report by digital market research firm Millward Brown Digital.
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In fact, the smartphone may actually be interrupting television viewing, as viewers try to multitask on their phones while they’re watching a show, according to Joline McGoldrick, Millward Brown Digital research director.
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For this report, Millward Brown Digital surveyed 12,000 consumers worldwide, including 444 in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
This research may have uncovered something most of us have already noticed — many Americans are constantly on their phones, including when they’re in front of the television. It’s hard to know what this adds up to, really. While the “golden age of television” people talk about these days refers to the high quality of many shows, those same shows don’t necessarily grab huge audiences during their first runs. The bigger disrupter of television adverting may be that many people binge-watch streaming versions of their favorite shows without ever laying eyes on an ad.