iPad reading could cut into TV’s primetime

16 years ago

“The iPad is changing how folks read stuff online — no surprise if you think how different a gizmo it is to a PC,” Kit Eaton reports for Fast Company. “But a new study shows it’s moving online reading into primetime TV hours, which is big news. Is evening reading coming back, just in a digital style?”

“With minor usage spikes first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and then dinner time, the main bulk of iPad text content consumption is from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.,” Eaton reports. “This is prime-time TV’s slot, and it seems that as well as settling back on the sofa to watch TV, people are taking their iPad with them too.”

MacDailyNews Take: Exactly what we do.

Eaton reports, “The data doesn’t reveal if folk are multitasking (spending some time ogling their favorite shows, some looking data up on the Web) or are ignoring the TV altogether–but the data will still be of concern to TV execs who expect uninterrupted attention from TV watchers, in order to maximize ad revenues.”