Known as the 'super viewer', the new demographic is characterised as highly-engaged multi-platform consumers who crave specific content that appeals to their interests, hobbies or passions throughout the day, no matter the time or device.

comScore says the trend is most often observed across cable networks that create lifestyle or interest-based content around particular categories like cooking, finance, news and sports. In addition, instead of one platform competing with another for their attention and time, super viewers actually consume more content throughout the day across multiple devices versus single platform users.

Because super viewers access content across TV and digital, the net result, calculates the analyst, is that cable networks benefit from up to a 50% lift in their total audience reach when they account for the content consumption that's also happening on their digital properties. Moreover, the company suggests that in certain categories such as sports and news, super viewers account for more than 42% and 27% of total time spent on TV and digital platforms, respectively.

But in assessing what this means for business, comScore cautioned that for advertisers to capitalise on this new viewing phenomenon, they should look at cable networks with a niche audience reach that can maximise the frequency of their brand messaging. It advised that by placing highly contextual or sequential messages on the right platforms at the best time of day, advertisers can optimise their cross-platform media strategies to leverage a networks' entire ecosystem on TV and digital.