Staff

Thanks to higher Internet usage, people are spending less and less time in front of the boob tube.

The third annual nationwide survey on Internet and media usage from the University of California-Los Angeles' Center for Communication Policy reported that Internet users spent almost five hours less watching television than their non-Internet counterparts. On average, those with home Internet connections watched 11.2 hours of TV per week, down from last year's survey result of 12.3 hours. Non-users logged 16 hours, the survey found.

The trend was even more pronounced among users who had Internet connections for six years or more. They watched only 10.2 hours of TV weekly.

Some 25 percent of Internet users also said the medium is an important entertainment source, the survey found.

Broadband users are not surprisingly even more bullish about online content, with 39.2 percent saying the Internet is a very important information source, compared to 31.3 percent of dialup users.

Home networking also is becoming more common. The survey found that in 2002, 32 percent of all households with two or more computers were linked with home networks. That number jumped to 65.2 percent in households with four or more computers.

The full survey is also available for download at http://ccp.ucla.edu/pages/internet-report.asp.