14 Aug 2008

Aussie internet usage takes over TV for the first time

The amount of time Australians are spending online has, for the first time ever, surpassed the amount of time spent watching television, according to a report released recently by Internet measurement company, Neilsen.

According to Neilsen, us Aussies are spending around 13.7 hours per week surfing the internet, while the average television viewing is around 13.3 hours.   Its also interesting to note that more than half (58%) of Australian internet users say they have watched TV while online and 48 percent have used the internet while listening to the radio.

"Traditionally, increases in the amount of time Aussies spend online has not been at the expense of other media usage", says Tony Marlow, Associate Research Director, Neilsen Online.  "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".

Australians are active internet participants, with 80 percent of us using the internet, well above the global internet participation  rate of just 20 percent.  Most Australians are accessing the internet from home (92%), with around a third accessing from work (34%).  The most popular activities online are email (98%), banking (72%) and accessing news, sport and weather updates (72%).  Areas of growth online in the year ahead will be accommodation bookings and instant messaging, both are set to have a growth rate of 20%.

Its no wonder Frost & Sullivan are reporting a year on year growth of 62 percent for online advertising in Australia, as Australian businesses are now seeing a strong return on investment for their online marketing spend.