Multi-screening around the world: Facebook visits over 700 TV viewers in 6 countries with eye square

The study results will be presented in detail at Quirk’s Event Chicago and at AFR AUDIENCExSCIENCE (co-presented with Facebook)

• How do people all over the world watch TV today?
• How do they spread their attention between TV and smartphone?
• Which apps are used in parallel while watching TV?

Facebook has conducted one of the most comprehensive global multi-screen eye tracking ethnographies with eye square (Germany, France, England, USA, Brazil, Indonesia).

eye square visited 544 households out of 763 Facebook users aged 18+ who watched television in different constellations (alone, with partner, friend or child) and were allowed to use their smartphones in parallel.

For the measurement, eye square has used a unique mobile combination of HD eye tracking, content recording and encoding.
In addition to determining the attention periods on the various devices, content seen on each screen was recorded.

Results:

• While content is running on TV, viewers look at their smartphone 28% of the time
• In commercial breaks, the smartphone is the most important pastime (55% of the time the audience is looking at the small screen)
• Multi-screening in commercial breaks is even more common in Brazil and Indonesia than in Western Europe and the US
• In all countries, social media is the most important app category used on smartphones – apps from the Facebook family globally account for 3 of the top 5 spots of the most widely used multi-screen apps

““Media usage is changing constantly and globally. In Asian markets, brand communication operates in very different ways than in Europe and users have very different habits to address that communication. ” says Matthias Rothensee, Research Director at eye square. “But national advertisers also need up-to-date and statistically reliable data to understand where their buyers are today and to stay in touch with them. Our study provides valuable insights into how users intuitively compose their media mix today, and what marketers can learn from it. “”

If you want to know more about media ethnography please contact us!

More information:

Facebook Study Report