Nielsen’s 2010 Internet & Technology Report has found the median Australian internet user spent 17.6 hours per week online in 2009, an increase of nine percent over 2008 with a 28.5 percent increase over 2007 levels of internet usage.
Interestingly the increases in Internet usage have not seen a corresponding drop in individuals consumption of other media with time spent watching television actually up 30 minutes amongst Internet users. The report’s authors attributing the increase in media consumption to the 49 percent of internet users who multi-task television and the Internet at the same time.
Matt Bruce, Managing Director of Nielsen’s online business in Australia believes this shift to media multi-tasking behavior is a result of the increasing variety and number of media choices now available.
“Changes to the Australian media landscape in recent years such as the introduction of Freeview TV, digital radio and PVR/DVRs (personal video recorder/digital video recorder) mean consumers have more options and flexibility in their media choices than ever before,”
In other surprising results consumption of radio amongst Internet users rose to 9.3 hours per week from 8.8 in 2008, with newspapers being read for 3.2 hours per week in 2009 up from 2.8 the year before.
Consistent with the belief that the internet and computers are still dominated by males, the study found they spent an average 19.2 hours online vs only 16.1 hours per week for females.
Nielsen’s Internet & Technology Report, was based on 2,371 responses from internet users and non-users via online and telephone interviews.
