This Isn't Surprising

In a world filled with technological distractions, television remains a universal medium but almost no one is watching the ads, a report by advertising agency Bensimon Byrne warns.
A growing number of Canadians are surfing the web or sending text messages on their cellphones while watching television, the agency said in its quarterly Consumerology report.
As well, many more households own personal video recorders and are using them to skip the ads, according to the report, which was being released Tuesday at Advertising Week 2010 in Toronto.
As a result, only one in five Canadians is giving television commercials their full attention, the study concluded.
“The overall learning from this study is that technology is fragmenting our attention spans dramatically,” Jack Bensimon, president of Bensimon Byrne said in a statement released Tuesday. “Advertisers must accept they no longer have a captive audience. Whatever your product, service or message, it needs to be of high interest or it will not sustain awareness.”
From just 9 per cent of households in 2008, the number with PVRs has risen to 29 per cent today and is projected to grow to 42 per cent by the end of this year, Bensimon said. The 9 per cent figure came from the Television Bureau of Canada.
Just over half of PVR owners use them to record the majority of the shows they watch and eight in 10 report that they fast-forward through the commercials, the study found.
The survey found younger people were earlier adopters of new technology. Some of its other findings:
• Half of Canadians under age 34 spend two hours a day online. But 83 per cent of respondents of all ages consider the Internet “essential” to their daily lives. And high speed internet access was cited as the single most important home entertainment device.
Just over half of respondents of all ages consider a cellphone “essential.” However, consumers over 55 were more likely to also own a land line, while those under 35 did not.
• Just over half of Canadians use Facebook, though usage is less likely among consumers over age 55.
• Only 22 per cent of respondents said they use Twitter and usage is concentrated among people under age 30.
The quarterly study commissioned by Bensimon Byrne and conducted by the Gandalf Group was based on a survey of 1,627 Canadians at two different times, early last September and mid-November.