Do people watch TV and use the Web at the same time?
Not so fast. How many times have we heard this story? In seeking to validate a cross-platform strategy, some Internet thinkers seize on one nugget of research and distort its importance. I am afraid that is going on here. Gartner says that at least once a week, 27 million U.S. adults simultaneously surf the Web while watching television. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers. Some vote in viewer polls while watching a live TV show and get “general information” on a product they see on TV, with a few placing an order. The key, though, is that 82% of what Gartner calls “telewebbers” have their TV on as “background noise” while they are using the Web. While these numbers argue for some synergy, this sort of negates the automatic assumption seemingly held by so many programmers (such as Oxygen Media, which is still struggling to find a successful Web strategy) that all you have to do is put up a Web address on the screen, and the teeming millions will reach across the shoulder to their I
