A pioneering ethnographic study conducted in the U.S has shown that watching TV on a TV set in the home remains by far the most popular way to watch TV, despite the growing popularity of other ways to watch such as online and mobile web.

In an observational study of nearly 500 U.S. consumers, Nielsen funded research think-tank The Committee for Research Excellence (CRE) found that TV in the home accounts for more than 99 per cent of total viewing time. Viewing TV content via the internet or on a mobile phone accounted for just 0.6 per cent of viewing time collectively.

Other key findings from its Video Consumer Mapping Survey include the fact that that live TV remains much more popular than DTR playback. Despite the rise in popularity of DTRs, the purchase of new TV technologies like DTRs and HDTV leads consumers to higher level of TV exposure. The study found that viewers are exposed to, on average, an hour a day of live TV ads and promos.

Twice in 2008, and for two full waking days each time, consumers across Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle and Indiana were observed and their exposure to media noted. Building on the three-screen orientation that Nielsen has built in recent years (observing consumer consumption of TV, internet and mobile content), the CRE developed a four screen categorisation. The first category includes live TV, DTR playback, DVDs, VCRs and console games; the second computers and the web; the third mobile technology; and the fourth any other type of screen - such as video displays in shopping malls and movie screens.

One of the most surprising finds, the CRE says, is that although the composition of consumers' screen media time varied across age groups, their total screen time is strikingly similar - except for those aged 45-54, whose screen time was markedly higher than other age groups.

Across all age groups, the number of TV minutes in the home viewed was found to be roughly ten times those of TV or video on the internet and mobile phones combined, with five and a half hours of TV viewed per day on average. TV, both live and through DTR playback, took pole position versus other screen related media across all age groups - including the young.

Live TV commands a particularly high share of time as a solus medium (i.e. it is consumed in isolation as opposed to at the same time as another medium such as a computer screen). The chart below shows that about 80 per cent of TV and video content is consumed solus - more so than any other medium.

The study also found that new HDTV ownership leads to a temporary increase in TV exposure - in particular an increase in the consumption of sports TV viewing - on Sundays for men and women and on Saturdays for men.

The CRE concludes that "serious caution" needs to be applied in interpreting self-report data for media use. TV is substantially under-reported whilst online video and mobile usage are over reported, it says.

Elsewhere, the study suggests that computing has displaced radio as the number two media activity. Radio is now at number three and print at number four.

For a full results from the study, please head to: http://www.researchexcellence.com/vcmstudy.php