Posted on: Thursday, January 3, 2002

Internet takes viewers from TV

By John Yaukey
Gannett News Service

Apparently the Internet is doing to TV what TV did to newspapers decades ago — namely, steal precious eye time.

According to a recent survey by the UCLA Center for Communications Policy, 72.3 percent of Americans had Internet access in 2001, up from 66.9 percent in 2000.

On average, the wired American spent 9.8 hours online a week, up almost an hour from the year before.

Where is that time additional time coming from?

TV time.

"Without question, Internet users are buying some of their time to go online from the time they used to spend watching television," Jeffrey Cole, director of the UCLA center, said in a statement.

That may be good news for parents. Roughly a quarter of the adults surveyed said the children in their homes watched less television after they started using the Internet.

"The 2001 Internet Policy Project leaves little doubt that the Internet is now a mainstream activity in American life that continues to spread among people across all age groups, education levels and incomes," the report concluded.

People who use the Internet are apparently fairly happy: on a scale of one to five, most rated their online experience a four.

The most popular uses of the Internet remain e-mail, instant messaging, Web browsing, shopping, researching local entertainment and reading the news.