Data released today from Symphony Advanced Media (SymphonyAM), the technology leader in single source cross-media measurement, revealed that 78 percent of Big Game viewers engaged in mobiletasking – the concurrent usage of a smartphone or tablet while watching a TV broadcast. When it comes to apps, Facebook led the pack with 29 percent of male and 39 percent of female viewers’ ages 25-54 accessing the app during the game. Candy Crush dominated in average time spent mobiletasking with users ages 25-54 playing for 15 percent of their TV viewing time. SymphonyAM’s study – which relies on single source cross-media passive measurement – is the first of its kind to track media exposure across TV, mobile, online and social media passively, without using a traditional survey-based approach.

“Mobiletasking has forever transformed the way media is consumed,” said SymphonyAM President and CEO Charles Buchwalter. “Advertisers have access to a proliferation of mobile devices to reach their target consumers. For the first time, media professionals can truly understand, in near real time, how to most effectively reach consumers who are simultaneously watching TV and using mobile apps.”

SymphonyAM’s passive tracking capabilities gathered data from a panel of 8,300 users to learn what mobile apps monopolized viewer attention during Sunday’s Big Game. The results from the study show that two out of five women and one out of three men used the Facebook app on their mobile devices at least once while watching the Big Game. While men were more likely to access Twitter, Women were drawn to Instagram.

It turns out that mobiletasking is not reserved for one age group – 35-54 year old mobiletaskers spent 28 percent of their viewing time utilizing their mobile devices, while 18-34 year olds spent 30 percent. Reach remains relatively static during the big game, averaging 78 percent across all age groups. Facebook was the top app among all age groups, accessed by 40 percent of 18-34 year olds and 34 percent of 25-54 year olds

“This is a significant breakthrough. The ability to passively measure how someone interacts with their mobile device while simultaneously tracking what they are watching on TV can yield a wealth of insight for marketers and media companies,” saidJane Clarke, managing director at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). As an industry alliance CIMM is focused on identifying and fostering new methodologies and approaches that can help improve cross-platform audience media measurement for the entire media ecosystem. CIMM successfully collaborated with SymphonyAM last year on a study to assess the efficacy of single-source passive measurement in gauging cross-platform advertising effectiveness.