By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
According to conventional wisdom, the Internet will take people away from their TV sets, if only to their computers. But this might not be the case as some online services, such as social networking sites, are cranking up television ratings.
Nielsen Online Chief Executive John Burbank told The Korea Times Friday that such ``telecommunities'' may increase TV usage down the road.
His rationale: TV provides a variety of topics on which people can communicate on a real-time basis via social networking providers such as Facebook, Tweeter and Cyworld.
During last year's Grammy Awards, Burbank tracked the TV and Internet usage of households and found out that many watched the programs live while chatting on social networks.
``People like to experience things together. They like to share back and forth. Often, they like to do these activities simultaneously … Social networks will make people spend more time watching TV,'' Burbank said.
Indeed, People tended to stay longer in front of the TV, perhaps affected by the rise of telecommunities ― during the 2008-2009 TV season, the Nielsen report said that the average American watched four hours and 49 minutes of TV per day, an all-time high.
The figure marks a 4-percent increase from a year ago and 20-percent jump from a decade before.
Burbank projected that the development of mobile networks, including Wi-Fi, would accelerate the trend toward telecommunities because they allow people to connect to the Internet anywhere.
``In the United States, the penetration of Wi-Fi is very high. People can sit and watch TV while using a laptop, as they can have conversations with others all around the country about what's happening right there on television,'' Burbank said.
``And for every event that happened, like sporting events or when Michael Jackson died, there was a huge converged usage of television and social networks,'' said the CEO, who took the helm of the firm midway through last year.
Burbank added that such convergence is not necessarily limited to live programming like awards shows and sporting events.
He thinks any program with a deeply loyal fan base can drive live viewing numbers and deeper engagement through telecommunities.
Burbank started his career at the Chicago Tribune Company before moving to Procter & Gamble where he worked for around 10 years. He subsequently worked for such high-tech powerhouses as AT&T, Cingular and AOL before joining Nielsen in 2008.