It took a study to discover that blacking out and waking up to discover you’ve lost half of your Sunday trolling through YouTube also steals time from watching TV. A recent Harris Interactive poll showed that out of 2,309 U.S. adults, some 363 of them were avid YouTube watchers. 32 percent of these YouTube viewers said it took away from their TV time.

We’re talking about 72.6 people here and hardly the final word on the matter. Some 34 percent of YouTube watchers also said they believed watching YouTube didn’t take time away from other activities.

But the research appears to counter early findings on the impact from CBS’s first month performance on YouTube. CBS clips of David Letterman and “NCIS” were among the most watched in the first month they were legally available on YouTube. The network also said the YouTube clips helped boost TV viewership.

Perhaps not, Harris Interactive says:

“TV networks and advertisers have been fearful of emerging competitors and technologies that threaten their route into consumers minds … This fear may indeed be warranted.”

Below is part of the Harris Interactive chart:

SPENDING LESS TIME DOING OTHER THINGS
AS RESULT OF TIME SPENT AT YOUTUBE
“If you are spending time at YouTube, you may be spending less time doing other things. Which of these are you spending less time doing as a result of spending time at YouTube?”