Australians spending more time on the internet

Last year saw internet use in Australia grow, with consumers spending more time surfing the net than watching television.

That is according to a report published recently by Nielsen Online, the internet measurement company, which revealed that approximately 13.7 hours per week were being spent by Australians on using the internet.

By contrast, the average consumer in Australia watches 13.3 hours worth of television per week.

Tony Marlow, Asia-Pacific associate research director for Nielsen Online, commented: "Traditionally, increases in the amount of time Aussies spend online has not been at the expense of other media usage.

"This means that in recent years Australians have been increasingly consuming more than one medium at a time, commonly resulting in a fragmented span of attention.

"While use of the internet continued to grow this year, for the first time ever this was not accompanied by an increase for TV consumption - a possible early warning sign that we are approaching the feared media saturation point."

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