The perfect storm in my case is the convergence of three studies.  First, I looked through an extensive study by Ofcom on UK media consumption patterns.  The most interesting part was about simultaneous media usage by age groups.  They found significant difference in device usage (TV, Radio, Mobile, Music Center, Land Line and Handheld) and usage of multiple devices or convergence of media types at the same time.  The second study was by Nielson.   It looked at simultaneous use of TV & Internet, and its frequency.  50 percent of the panel engaged in simultaneous use of PC and TV daily and time spent multi-tasking has grown nearly 20 percent year-to-year. This media convergence behavior has changed significantly in even the last year and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

The third study was a panel of one.  I have observed my 16 year old, sitting in front of the TV, using Facebook on his laptop to engage with friends and listen/watch to Youtube videos in a separate browser window…..all at the same time.  If that is not multi-tasking and convergence, I don’t know what is!

Neilson had the following takeaways:

•  Marketers should coordinate on-line and TV buys

• The focus of the user seems to be on the internet content, not the TV

• The content watched on the internet is not connected to the TV content

• This trend is to be expected in younger age groups, but it is spreading into older groups as well.

Recently, I conducted a study for a retailer looking at how to plan media by cluster segment integrating on-line and off-line viewing patterns.  Now it seems the next step is to look at the convergence of content and viewing behavior to drive media consumption.