According to Reuters, Nielsen's research shows that "57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers."
The research also showed that simultaneous usage overlaps by about 2 hours and 40 minutes a month for the average television viewer, with 28% of time spent on the web also spent watching TV.
We're not exactly surprised by the findings. We know that online video usage is up 53%, and that more than ever entertainment viewers are engaging with show content both online and off. It certainly helps that studios, networks, and internet providers are helping merge the two worlds.
We've already seen a barrage of social media and television connecting initiatives such as MTV's efforts to include Twitter reactions in their red carpet programming, Bravo's Facebook/Twitter virtual viewing party (which was a success), Verizon FiOS integrating Facebook and Twitter, FOX experimenting with Twitter on TV (it didn't go so well though), and AMC using their MadMenYourself social media marketing campaign to drum interest in the new season.