Credit: By .reid. on Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.
A study which looked into how international audiences access news on different devices found the majority of those asked, 42 per cent, use television as their "primary and first device" for accessing breaking news information.
The study of "more than 3,600 owners of digital devices" was carried out by InSites Consulting and commissioned by BBC World News and bbc.com/news.
Respondents were based in nine countries across the world, including France, US, Germany, Australia, Poland, India, Singapore, UAE and South Africa. The study did not include UK respondents.
According to a release outlining the results, the internet is the second source of choice for most respondents (66 per cent) "to investigate stories further".
A further breakdown of these figures shows that laptops were the second highest "primary and first device" when it comes to breaking news, with 24 per cent of respondents indicating this as their initial port of call.
This is followed by smartphones with 18 per cent, tablet devices with 7 per cent, radio with 5 per cent and newspapers with 3 per cent.
The release says the study aims "to determine the growing impact of TV, smartphones, tablets and laptops on people's news consumption habits".
"Survey participants were top income earners and owners of at least three devices amongst television, tablet, smartphone and laptop/desktop."
Among other "key findings" shared in the release includes those who have tablet devices being found to "watch more TV news, not less", with 43 per cent said to "consume more TV than they did five years ago, and most saying they use tablets alongside TV".
Out of the rest of the respondents, 30 per cent said they watch TV news "equally often", a quarter watch "less often" and 2 per cent did not use television to watch the news five years ago.
Television news "dominates overall usage", the release adds, with the majority of time spent accessing the news (42 per cent) said to be via television. This is followed by 29 per cent on laptops, 18 per cent on smartphones and 10 per cent on tablets.
"The survey found that, rather than competing, different platforms complement one another allowing people to layer their device usage throughout the day," the release adds.
"Smartphones and laptops are most popular throughout the working day, peaking at around 1pm. TV usage spikes dramatically from 5pm onwards, and at its peak time of 7pm TV use is 50 per cent higher than for any other device."
The study also released a supporting infographic detailing the main findings, as shared below:
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