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Study: Web rivals TV for coveted eyeballs

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- The first in a planned series of reports focusing on the online behavior of television's favorite demographic suggests that, no surprise, the Internet is formidable competition for the eyeballs of 18- to 34-year-olds.

More men and women ages 18-34 are online than any other demographic, and although they are only 24% of the U.S. population, they account for 40% of all Internet pages viewed, according to a just-released study from the Online Publishers Assn. (OPA) and ComScore Networks.

"It's the most coveted category by advertisers and a group that has been defecting primetime television," OPA president Michael Zimbalist said, explaining why his group intends to make 18- to 34-year-olds the subject of several future reports.

"The most amazing thing," he said of the demographic, "is that 30% of them are going daily to entertainment sites. That's far more than the 19% who regularly read entertainment magazines."

Based on data gathered in October, more than 34% of 18- to 34-year-olds download music each month (compared with 27% of total Internet users), 32% watch online music videos (compared with 21%), 39% watch movie clips or trailers online (compared with 32%), almost 40% get online movie reviews or other movie information (compared with 31%), and 28% get celebrity gossip online (as opposed to 21%), according to the study.

"Because this group represents the first generation to have grown up with the Internet, their behavior patterns are a harbinger of future media consumption of the population at large," the study asserts.

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