The research, conducted by Nielsen for video advertising platform YuMe, involved lab observations of 200 respondents over a two month period. Video consumers were instructed to engage with devices —TVs, laptops, tablets and smartphones — as they would naturally at home for 20 uninterrupted minutes.

TV was found to be the initial medium of choice for the multi-taskers in the study ( 53% usage across all respondents), but some participants quickly switched their attention — often within the first few minutes — choosing to seek out content on other devices. Participants spent less than half of the time that the TV was switched on paying attention to it. Nevertheless, TV provided a constant background, even if the participant wasn’t interested in the specific programme being shown.

Of all the ads that were shown in the study, 30% of ads shown on TV were seen; 71% of ads shown on a laptop were seen; 93% of ads shown on a tablet were seen.

“No one is debating that consumers are multi-tasking. This ethnographic study was specifically designed to garner insights into users’ behaviours and preferences while multi-tasking,” said Paul Neto, director of Research at YuMe.

“Despite distraction levels among consumers, it will be important for brand advertisers to continue running campaigns cross-screen, as viewers continue to show they are also attentive on laptops, tablets, and/or smartphones while ‘watching’ TV.”

Full study results can be found here.