Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

An Accenture survey of internet users around the world found a dramatic shift in TV viewing preferences, with computers abruptly displacing TVs as the preferred device for watching TV shows.

The study, which surveyed 26,000 internet users worldwide, found a sharp drop—from 52% in 2016 to 23% in 2017—of people who said they preferred to watch TV shows the traditional way, on a TV.

Meanwhile, more than four in 10 respondents (42%) said they preferred to watch TV shows on a laptop or desktop, up from 32% last year. The number who opted for smartphone viewing also grew, but less dramatically.

When it comes to short video clips—though many respondents preferred to watch them via a laptop or desktop—the preference for viewing them on smartphones grew substantially in 2017 compared with a year prior....

The study -- which is part of an ongoing series of research commissioned by the Council for Research Excellence to understand the nature of watching TV in the current viewing environment -- was conducted by Nielsen Consumer Neuro, which utilizes a variety of biometric measurement techniques to understand people’s conscious and unconscious interaction with media.

The findings of the study, dubbed “The Mind of the Viewer,” were described as preliminary, especially the part testing response to people-meter prompts, but it suggested that the kinds of media distractions impacting the way people consume media may also be impacting the way the industry measures how people consume media.

“We live in the age of distraction,” Carl Marci, chief neuroscientist at Nielsen, remarked, adding: “People make interesting choices with technology.”

When it comes to interacting with people meters -- the technology that is the basis for producing national TV’s advertising currency, Nielsen national TV ratings -- 25% of Nielsen people-meter panelists participating in the study did not respond to their prompts because they were looking at a second screen when the meter prompted them with a light....