Media
Use Statistics Resources on media habits of children, youth and adults;
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Even in 2012, More Americans Own TVs than Cell Phones Some 290 million Americans, in
114.7 million households, own at least one TV. Compare that with 234 million
cellphone owners, 211 million Americans who are online, and the 116 million
(ages 13 and up) who surf the mobile web.
(Source)
Report: U.S. Consumers Watch 16
Minutes of Online Video Ads
Monthly
With 183 million reported monthly U.S. Internet users, the figure breaks
down to just under 16 minutes and 49 seconds worth of online advertising
viewed per person. Of the 3.08 million minutes of online video advertising,
Hulu accounted for 18.3 percent, or 565 million minutes. Tremor Video
accounted for 594 million minutes (19.2 percent) and Adap.tv's ads
represented 551 million minutes (17.9 percent).
U.S. adults watched
40.9 billion videos, an average of 20.5 hours per viewer. YouTube was the
top online video property for the month, with 151.6 million unique viewers.
The service garnered 20.5 billion video views in the month. The average
viewer watched 7.4 hours on YouTube. Vevo was second, with 55.4 million
viewers. Facebook (50.8 million viewers), Yahoo (50.4 million) and Viacom
Digital (47.4 million) rounded out the top five. Hulu was second in
engagement, with 3.3 hours watched per viewer. (source)
Mobile Data Usage By Age:
Average teen girls sends/receives
nearly 4k texts a month
Source
Pass the Remote…and the
Tablet: Media Study Detects Boost in TV, Mobile Use
According to an
eMarketer study of U.S. adult media habits, Americans spent
an average of four hours and 34 minutes per day in front of the
tube, up 10 minutes from last year (2010).
America’s continued love for couch
surfing combined with America’s new
found love for their mobile
devices–with usage exceeding an hour
a day–brought the overall average
time spent on major media to 693
minutes per day, report the study
authors at research firm eMarketer.
That’s over 11 hours of media time a
day, folks. The figure is up from
660 minutes last year.
Internet usage was the second most
popular media activity after TV
watching. Americans spent an average
of 167 minutes per day on the
Internet in 2010, up from 155
minutes last year. 2011 was not kind
to radio and print newspapers. No
surprise here. Newspapers saw a four
minute drop from the year previous,
with a 2011 average of 26 minutes
per day–half of the time Americans
spend on their mobile devices.
Magazines dropped from 20 minutes to
18 minutes. (Source)
Social media use is widespread
among teens. Fully 95 percent of all teens ages 12-17 are
now online, and 80 percent of online teens are users of
social media sites. Teens of all ages and backgrounds are
witnessing these mean behaviors online and are reacting in a
variety of ways:
Ninety percent of teen
social media users say they have ignored the mean
behavior they have witnessed on a social network site.
Eighty percent say
they have personally defended a victim of meanness and
cruelty.
Seventy-nine percent
say they have told someone to stop their mean behavior
on a social network site.
Twenty-one percent say
they have personally joined in on the harassment of
others on a social network site.
A new study finds that after being flat for
five years, the amount of leisure time that Americans spent online grew 20%
a year from 2008 to 2010. The report by Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin,
based on an analysis of a U.S. Labor Department survey of 112,000 people,
attributes that increase mainly to growing adoption of tablets and other
mobile devices.
But leisure time spent online still amounts
to just 12 minutes a day, or 4% of the five hours total leisure time that
people have per day. That’s because only 11% of all Americans report
devoting any time to relaxing online, up from 9% in 2008. Within that
subset, time spent pursuing online leisure activities was flat at 100
minutes per day between 2003 and 2010. (Source)
Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use
in America (Common Sense Media)
(Source) Among all children up to age 8, an
average of one hour and 40 minutes is spent watching television or DVDs in a
typical day, compared to 29 minutes reading or being read to, 29 minutes
listening to music, 17 minutes using a computer, 14 minutes using a console
or handheld video game player, and 5 minutes using a cell phone, video iPod,
iPad, or similar device.
In a typical day, zero- to 1-year-olds
spend more than twice as much time watching television and DVDs (53
minutes) as they do reading or being read to (23 minutes). And some
young children have already begun media multitasking—23 percent of
5- to 8-year-olds use more than one medium “most” or “some” of the
time.
Among the survey’s key
findings:
42 percent of children under 8
years old have a TV in their bedroom.
Half (52 percent) of all zero-
to 8-year-olds have access to a new mobile device such as a
smart phone, video iPod, or iPad/tablet.
More than a third (38 percent)
of children this age have used one of these devices, including
10 percent of zero-to 1-year-olds, 39 percent of 2- to
4-year-olds, and more than half (52 percent) of 5- to
8-year-olds.
In a typical day, one in 10
zero- to 8-year-olds uses a smart phone, video iPod, iPad, or
similar device to play games, watch videos, or use other apps.
Those who do such activities spend an average of 43 minutes a
day doing so. (Source)
New Orleans Watches Prime-Time the
Most, and Other Regional Facts of Media Life
The number of people watching
time-shifted TV in the second quarter leapt 12.9% from a
year earlier, even though the number of people watching TV
overall only grew 0.6%, according to new research from
Nielsen. (source)
Half Of Americans Watch Online Video: Nielsen
Internet video streaming is officially mainstream -- with 48% of U.S.
consumers now watching some video online -- but TV remains the great
American pastime, according to Nielsen's quarterly report on media
consumption. Monthly time spent
watching traditional TV in the second quarter of 2011 climbed 1.9%, to 146
hours and 20 minutes, a year-over-year increase of 2 hours and 43 minutes of
monthly viewing, according to the Nielsen Cross-Platform Report for Q2 2011.
By contrast, time spent watching video on the Internet was 4 hours and 26
minutes per month on average, up 15% from a year ago -- just 3% of the time
parked in front of the TV. And Americans spend more than four times watching
time-shifted TV -- on DVRs and video-on-demand -- than watching online
video, according to the Nielsen study.
(Source)
National Newspaper Week
(October 2-8, 2011) Newspapers still have 50 million customers each
weekend, and 400 million sets of eyeballs purchase a newspaper every week.
Additional perspective:
10 million adults used Twitter in the last month; 164 million read a
newspaper in print or online last week.
(Source)
click image above to go to the full infographic (source)
Americans Spend 23% of Online Time
on Social Networks Americans spend almost a
quarter of their time online on social networking sites, says a
Nielsen report released September 12. According to
the report -- which combines data from Nielsen mobile and online
meters, buzz data and a survey -- Internet users spend more than
twice as much time on social networks (including blogs) as they do
on online games, the next top web destination by time. The most
popular social network as measured by Nielsen online meters is
Facebook, followed by Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter and LinkedIn.
(Source)
American Millennials Study
Millennials watch significantly less TV than Non-Millennials,
says the report, watching 20-plus hours/week (26% versus 49%).
When not watching live TV, Millennials are much more likely to
watch shows mainly on their laptops (42% versus 18%), with DVR
(40% versus 36%), or On-Demand (26% versus 18%) (Source)
TV & Video Consumer Trend Report 2011
ConsumerLab has released the results of its annual study TV &
Video Consumer Trend Report 2011, which reveals that people are
spending slightly less time watching scheduled broadcast TV, and
that they are spending more time watching streamed on-demand TV
online. More than 44 (38) percent of the respondents reported
watching Internet-based on-demand TV more than once per week, while
about 80 percent watch broadcast TV more than once per week. (Source)
Half of Tablet Owners Watching Both
TV & Films the research firm In-Stat has found that about half of all
tablet owners are watching both feature length films and TV shows on
their tablet devices.
Looking at the wider tablet/smartphone universe, In-Stat found that
about 86% of tablet and smartphone owners are using them to watch
video and
nearly 60% of smartphone/tablet owners are viewing over-the-top
video at home.(Source)
Half of American adults use
Facebook, other social networks: Pew
Study Social media sites continue to surge in popularity, and now half
of all American adults using Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn,
according to a
new survey released Friday by the Pew Research Center.The study reported that 65 percent of all online adults surveyed
in May said they were using social networking sites, up from 61
percent a year ago. The social media users represent 50 percent of
all American adults, Pew said.(Source)
Videogame Consoles: Top Internet Connected Device Data from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) showed that as of
February 2011, 30% of US households had at least one
internet-enabled device connected to their TV, a percentage that has
grown slowly but steadily over the past few years. More
specifically, LGR found that while only 10% of US households had an
internet-connected TV, almost a quarter (23%) had an
internet-enabled game console they used to watch online video.(Source)
How Teens Interact With Media Teens today are the most digitally connected generation we have
ever seen. A study released in late June by Nielsen on teen media
usage offers some interesting
insight into the connected people of the class of 2011. (Source)
Top Genres of Mobile Video Consumption
by Reach – Mobile Video Users Ages 13-17
Mobile Media
Usage by US Teens –
13-17 Mobile Users
Average Number of
Monthly Texts vs.
Phone Calls – US
Mobile Teens Ages
13-17
Minority kids spend most of their
waking hours plugged in
Minority children spend an average of 13 hours a day
using mobile devices, computers, TVs and other media
— about 4½ hours more than white kids, says a report
(Children, Media and Race: Media Use
Among White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American
Children
) released June 8. The findings, from Northwestern
University, are being presented to childhood and
telecommunications experts in Washington, D.C.
(Source)
The graphic below shows daily use of a variety of
communication technologies – and suggests that while
text messaging as a daily activity for teens has grown
astronomically over the past three years, other
communicative technologies have remained relatively
stable or have declined slightly, suggesting that the
increase
in texting has layered on top of the other modes of
communication that teens employ.
(Source)
Kids increasingly spending time
with multiple online channels
New
research from the Nielsen Company found that 96.7
percent of American homes have at least one television, down
from 98.9 percent the last time Nielsen took count.
This is the first time in 20 years that TV ownership has
declined. Nielsen partly blames the drop on poverty combined
with broadcast television's switch from analog to digital.
(Source)
Time Spent Watching TV
Television Bureau of Advertising's analysis: Traditionally, women in TV
households have spent the most time viewing the tube, averaging more than 5
hours a day in recent years. Men are next, with more than 4.5 hours of daily
viewing since 2005. Teens and children have been viewing at about the same
levels, nearing the 3.5 hour mark. In 2009, men increased to 4:54. Women,
still No. 1, increased to 5:31. Teens went down to 3:26, and children were
up to 3:31.
(Source)
America’s Media Thirst Unquenchable,
Claims Study
the report—The
Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms—Americans are spending
an hour and 21 minutes more time per day with media than in 2001.
31 percent of Americans claim to own a
smartphone, according to Arbitron/Edison’s report, up from just 14 percent a
year ago.
it found that more than half of Americans 12
and older (51 percent) use Facebook, up from 8 percent just three years ago.
total weekly usage of online radio has doubled
in the past five years, netting out at 9 hours 47 minutes per week. In fact,
the audience for Web radio has
doubled every five years since 2001 and now exceeds 57 million teens and
adults each week, or 22 percent of Americans 12 and older. (Source)
Ad Exposure
According
to
Roy H. Williams, whose Wizard of Ads books I have found
inspiring and helpful, "A recent Yankelovich study tells us that Americans
are confronted by more than 5,000 selling messages per day - radio and
television and magazines and newspapers and billboards floating on an ocean
of store signage, posters, point-of-purchase displays and product packaging
- each one hoping to gain our eyes, ears and attention." (Source;
also cited
here)
Most People Spend More Than Half Their Day Consuming Media
Average Twitter User Older Than
Expected Flowtown found that Twitters
users, on average, are 39 years old, while those who use LinkedIn are an
average of five years older.
Nearly half (47 percent) of all internet users between 50 and 64 years of
age also have at least one social media account.
Even 26 percent of those aged 60 and above use Facebook, Twitter or another
social media website on a regular basis.
A full 61 percent of all adults surveyed by Flowtown indicated that they had
used social networking websites in the past,
representing an impressive rise from the 47 percent measured a year ago, in
August 2009. Thirty-eight percent of adults responded
that they use social media on a daily basis.
Most interesting of all the findings is the fact that nearly four-in-ten
internet users between 30 and 49 years of age use social media every day.
This proportion is six out of ten in the 18 to 29 age cohort. (Source)
Adults, Cell Phones and Texting (Pew)
Texting by adults has
increased over the past nine months from 65% of adults
sending and receiving texts in September 2009 to 72%
texting in May 2010. Still, adults do not send nearly the
same number of texts per day as teens ages 12-17, who send
and receive,
on average, five times more texts per day than adult texters.
Adults who text
typically send and receive a median of 10 texts a day;
teens who text send and receive a median of 50 texts per
day.
5% of all adult
texters send more than 200 text messages a day or more
than 6,000 texts a month. Fully 15% of teens ages
12-17, and 18% of adults ages 18 to 24 text message more
than 200 messages a day, while just 3% of adults ages 25
to 29 do the same.
Heavy adult
texters -- those who send and receive more than 50 texts
a day -- also tend to be heavy users of voice calling.
Light texters, who exchange one to 10 texts a day, do
not make up for less texting by calling more. Instead,
they are light users of both calling and texting.
(Source)
Study
Indicates Changes In TV Viewing Habits
The study,
titled “Multi Screen Media Consumption
2010,” revealed that 50 percent of the 300
million consumers polled were
viewing Internet TV on a weekly basis.
The study also indicated that
individuals are now spending up to 35
percent of their
leisure time in watching television.
The study also indicated that
93 percent of those surveyed are still
watching “linear” broadcast
television, and 70 percent report that they
are streaming, downloading, or watching
recorded broadcast television offerings on a
weekly basis.
(Source)
Social
Networking Dominates U.S. Web Use; Facebook
Leads The Way
According to Nielsen, U.S. users currently
spend 23 percent of their time on the
Internet using social networking platforms.
And Nielsen
puts the massive increase in social
networking use squarely on the shoulders of
Facebook, which just recently reached more
than
500 million users to become the most widely
used social networking platform globally.
While social networking
gathers steam, Nielsen also found that 10
percent of U.S. Internet time is spent
playing games,
which has now overtaken email as the second
most popular online activity. Email dropped
28 percent from 2009 to 2010
and now represents 8.3 percent of online
time,
(Source)
Mobile Access 2010 report/study the Pew study discovered that
38 percent of U.S. adults who have a mobile device access the Internet with
it in May 2010, up from 25 percent in April 2009,
82 percent of U.S. adults has a mobile device, which translates into just
more than 31 percent of all U.S. adults use a mobile device to log onto the
Internet this year.
11 percent of U.S. adults who have a mobile device — or 9 percent of the
entire adult population — have made a purchase with their phones. That
number jumps to
20 percent among those between the ages of 18 and 29.
23 percent of U.S. adults who own a mobile device — or 19 percent of the
entire adult population — have accessed an online social network,
20 percent have viewed a video and 11 percent have contributed to charity,
all via their mobile phones. (Source)
Profile of the Average Gamer (June
2010) Today's average gamer is 34 years
old, according to a study of 1,200 households by
the Entertainment Software Assn.
The most frequent game purchaser is 40. Nearly half of all gamers are
between 18 and 49. More surprisingly, more than a
quarter of the gaming population is over 50.
The average adult gamer has been playing
computer or videogames for 12 years. The ESA reports that 48% of parents
play videogames with their kids at least once per week. And 67% of American
homes
either own a console, and/or use their PC to run entertainment software
(Source)
Blogosphere dominated by younger
Americans Bloggers age 21-35 accounted for
53.3% of over one million blog posts analyzed, followed by bloggers under
age 20 (20.2%),
those age 36-50 (19.4%), and those age 51+ (7.1%).(Source)
Adults Spend Twice as Much Time on
TV Than Web People age 18-plus watched 319 minutes
of television a day, according to the Media Comparisons Study 2010
commissioned
by the
Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB). That figure more than doubles
the time spent on the Internet (156.6 minutes),
and dwarfs daily time spent engaging with radio (91.2 minutes), newspapers
(26.4 minutes) and mobile (19.2).
Other findings showed that television reaches nearly 90% of people 18-plus
every day, better than the Internet's 67.5%,
radio's 60.6% and newspapers' 38.6%, and TV reaches over 80% of the general
population.
(Source)
Teens and Cell Phones (Pew Study, April 2010) * The typical
American teen sends and receives 50 or more messages per day, or 1,500 per
month.
And there are a sizeable number who do much more than that: 31% of teens
send and receive more than 1
00 messages per day or more than 3,000 messages a month; 15% of teens who
are texters send more
than 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 texts a month.
· The report runs down a lot of details about the things that teens do with
their phones besides texting and talking.
For example: 83% use their phones to take pictures; 60% play music on their
phones; 46% play games on their phones;
32% exchange videos on their phones; 27% go online for general purposes on
their phones; 23% access social networking
sites on their phones. (Source)
Cell phones and texting
Texting is the No. 2 use of cell phones after
checking the time.
Sixty-five percent of high school students use cell
phones in school.
One-quarter of text messages sent by teens are sent
during class.
Text messages connect kids instantly and privately.
Images and messages can be spread virally or
uploaded.
Teens with phones averaged
nearly 2,900 texts a month — a 566 percent increase in two years.
(Source: Common Sense Media, quoted
here)
18th Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Study
One in four Americans 12
or older have listened to audio from an iPod or
alternate MP3 player connected to a car stereo.
52% of Americans have listened to online radio. In March
2010, 70 million Americans listened to Internet radio
(27%).
Three in ten who are 12 - 24 years old are "very
interested" in online radio for car or mobile devices.
The weekly online
radio audience is 43 million people (the same as in
2009) or 17% of the total population, 12 years or older.
(Source)
Half of
Americans Have Profiles on Social Networking Sites Social media seems to have
come of age as a new national survey from Arbitron and Edison Research
indicates that
the percentage of Americans ages 12 and older who have a profile on one or
more social networking Web sites
has reached almost half (48 percent) of the population in 2010.(Source)
More
Americans Watching TV & Internet Together (Nielsen) Americans increased their
overall media usage and media multitasking according to The Nielsen
Company’s latest
Three Screen Report,
which tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones. In the last
quarter of 2009, simultaneous use of the Internet while
watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up 35% from the previous
quarter. Nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet
once a month while also watching TV. (Source)
State of The
News Media 2010 (excerpts) Audiences for news declined
on all platforms except digital and cable, the study reports, with the bulk
of the online traffic for news attracted
by the biggest operations: "Of the 4,600 (news and information) sites, the
top 7 percent collect 80 percent of the traffic. And the top 20 sites
attract the majority of that (most of them legacy media)."
(Source)Two-thirds of the top news
sites were either pure news aggregators
(like Google and Yahoo news) or had a strong aggregation element (like MSNBC
or AOL). The age group most likely to use a news aggregation
service was 18-29 (68 percent), followed by 30-49 (57 percent), followed by
50 plus (45 percent). (Source)
The report, "Understanding
the Participatory News Consumer," examines the impact of digital media
on news consumption and interaction behaviors.
A section of the study focused specifically on the growth of mobile devices
reveals that more than 80 percent of adults now own cell phones and
37 percent use their phones to access the Web.
(Source)
FCC: Cell
phone use high; mobile web use low
According to new research from the Federal Communications Commission: 86% of
Americans own a cell phone; fewer than one third
use their devices to access the mobile Web. In contrast, 66% have sent or
received text messages. Among younger cell phone owners,
48% of those ages 19-29 access the mobile web compared to only 5% of those
over 65. (Source)
FCC: One third of Americans don't use fast Internet The study found that 80
million adults and 13 million children either still use dial-up or don’t use
the Internet at all at home
Source for graphic
Journalists'
Use of Social Media Soars Nearly 70% of journalists surveyed are
using social networking sites, a 28% increase since the results of the 2008
Survey of Media in the Wired
World were released; -- 48% are using Twitter or other microblogging
sites and tools, a 25% increase since 2008 (Source)
Cell phones
and Texting A December 2009 study by the Pew
Research Center showed that 68% of cellphone owners 18 and older send text
messages.
A deeper dive reveals the biggest texters to be 18- to 24-year-olds (95%).
And while that stat shouldn't floor anyone, what may
surprise is just how many people are texting within the older sets,
including 25- to 34-year-olds (87%); 35-44 (74%);
45-54 (69%); 55-64 (43%) and 65-plus (20%). (Source)
Facebook
Mobile Tops 100 Million Users More than 100 million people are
actively using Facebook from their mobile devices every month,
a 54% increase from the 65 million people who did so just six months
ago, according to Facebook.
Source
TV: Where Most Americans Will Get Their Political News
A recent Rasmussen poll found that a clear
majority of Americans – 59% -- plan on getting most of their political
information from their
television sets this year. That number represents the combined total for
cable and broadcast sources.The breakdown of the 59% is
37% cable, 22% broadcast. The internet is second with 21%. Newspaper and
radio trailed, with neither able to break into double digits,
pulling responses of 9% and 7% respectively. 18% now get political updates
over a phone or other mobile device, with 18-29-year-olds
twice more likely to do so than the 65+ crowd. (Source)
Televisions In The Home
As of November
(2009), according to media researcher Nielsen,
29.9 percent of TV-owning households in the U.S.
have four or more televisions--that's very
close to one-third of the 115 million domestic
domiciles that have at least one television set.
Among the other, relatively impoverished TV
households,
25.1 percent have three sets, 28.3 percent have
two, and 16.7 percent have a measly single TV.
As you might expect, that many televisions
translates to
some lofty numbers in other TV-related sectors.
Nielsen found that 103.6 million U.S. homes are
cable- or satellite-ready.
Approximately 51 million American homes have
digital cable. (Source)
Game Console Data Released
Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the most-used
console when measured by its share of total
usage minutes, capturing 23.1 percent of
gaming time.
It is followed by the PlayStation 2 with
20.4 percent of usage time and the Nintendo
Wii with 19 percent. Surprisingly, the
PlayStation 3 didn't make the list top-three
list.
But Nielsen didn't stop there. The company
said that 54 percent of American homes own a
game console or handheld system.
And so far, 41 percent of homes have at
least one current-gen console. (Source)
State of the Media Democracy Report
According to
Deloitte's fourth annual report 34 per cent of Americans cite TV as
their favorite medium, up from 27 per cent last year. Second through fourth,
respectively, were
Internet, music and books, all of which are perceived by the average
consumer as being less
expensive than a night out at the movies. While 71 per cent of
respondents say watching TV
is one of their top media choices, only 22 per cent listed going to the
movies among their top 3.
(Source)
Source: Newsweek Magazine, 12/7/09, page 23
Internet Use & The Elderly
In the last five years, the number of Seniors 65+ actively using the
Internet grew 55% from 17.5 million
in November of 2009 up from 11.3 million in November of 2004
according to a recent survey by Nielsen.
Among online visitors 65+, 88.6% say checking their personal email
is their top online activity. (Source)
Middle School Student Media Consumption Study Results
According to the Ratheon study, 72 percent of U.S. middle
school students spend more than three hours each day outside
of school in front of a TV, mobile phone or computer screen rather than
doing homework or other academic-related activities. The study found that students spend a
lot of time in front of a screen doing one or more of the following
activities:
watching TV, playing video games, sending text messages or using the
computer (for non-school related tasks). (Source)
Texting getting more popular with older generation Texting is becoming more and more popular
with older people in the UK, reports Media Week
citing research from mobile messaging technology provider Tekelec. The
research found that
60 percent of Brits aged over 45 are now as likely to text as make voice
calls on their handsets.
It found than 44 percent of those aged 35-44 and 14 percent of those aged 45
and over send
more than 30 texts a week. It also showed that texting is more popular with
women than men -
with over 40 percent of women seeing themselves mainly as 'texters', versus
30 percent of men.
(Source)
How Much Information? Study An average American digests a whopping 34
gigabytes of information outside of work every day, according to
a new study from the
University of California, San Diego. The UCSD researchers estimate we
each ingest
about 100,500 words daily from various forms of media. In all, it's about
350 percent more data than we were
swallowing down just three decades ago.
Excerpts:
-Contrary to some popular perceptions, adults are watching far more TV than
teens. Americans age 60 to 65
spend more than seven hours a day being idly entertained; teenagers, on
average, spend about four.
-This one may come as a surprise: Nineteen percent of our nonwork
info-gathering time is taken up by radio-listening.
The majority of that, the researchers find, is during our commutes.
- Believe it or not, computer use accounts
for only 24 percent of our info-ingesting hours, work excluded.
That includes Web-surfing, game-playing, video-watching, and whatever else
you may or may not be spending two hours a week doing online
- E-mail's the most widely used Internet service, taking up more than a
third of America's total online hours.
Web browsing is a close second, at about 30 percent.
(Source)
The Nielsen Company says (November 2009) that U.S.
television viewing reached an all time high in the
2008-09 season, with Americans spending
an average four hours and 49 minutes a day in front
of the television. The figure, which includes
Americans watching recorded TV within
7 days of airing and cable viewing, was up four
minutes from the previous TV season year and up 20
percent from 10 years ago. Nielsen said
the average household watched eight hours and 21
minutes a day on average -- also an all-time high.
Daily viewing during prime-time
remained flat compared to a year ago but was still
at its highest peak since 1991. (Source)
Media Reach, Audio and Radio
According to a Nielsen analysis of a media study conducted by
the Council for Research Excellence, 77% of adults are reached by
broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. The
study found that Web/Internet (excluding email) reached 64%,
newspaper 35%, and magazines 27%. And, in a deeper analysis of audio media
titled "How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio,"
Nielsen found that:
90% of consumers listen to some form of audio media per day
The 77% who listen to broadcast radio surpass the 37% who listen to
CDs and tapes and the 12% who listen to portable audio devices.
Almost 80% of those aged 18 to 34 listening to broadcast radio in an
average day. (Source)
Nielsen: Kids watching TV at
eight-year high
According to Nielsen Media Research, children aged 2-11 spend more hours
in front of the tube than they
have since at least 2001. Kids aged 2-5 average more than 32 hours a
week in front of a TV. Kids
6-11 spend a little less, about 28 hours per week, presumably because
they're spending more time in school.
Both measures are the highest levels recorded by Nielsen during the
study period. (source)
Traditional News Media Still the Source for Most on Major News,
According to
2009 State of the First Amendment Survey Television was the first source for major news stories for about
half of all
responding (49%), followed by the Internet at 15%, radio at 13% and
newspapers
at 10% -- which places traditional news media (TV, radio and newspapers) as
the first source for 72% of Americans. Twitter, e-mails and
social-networking
sites each were named by 1% of those responding.
Similarly, for 48% of Americans TV is the primary source for follow-up
reports
on those news stories, followed by the Internet at 29% and newspapers at 9%.
(sources:
Reuters; First Amendment
Center)
Digital Video Awareness Grows; YouTube Still Dominates
More than two-thirds (67%) of online Americans now report that
they have streamed or downloaded
digital video content from the internet, and most feel it’s reasonable to
watch embedded ads in
online TV and movies if the desired video content remains free-of-charge,
according to data from Ipsos MediaCT’s most
recent MOTION study. (Source)
Study: TV programming viewed online in 25% of U.S.
households
A new survey by the Conference Board reports that almost 25% of U.S.
households watch TV shows
online as opposed to 20% just one year ago. Of these viewers, 43% watch news
shows, 35% sitcoms,
comedies and dramas, around 20% watch reality programming and 18% sports.
(Source)
VIEWERS USING WEB & TV SIMULTANEOUSLY: Nielsen study
Nielsen said in a report 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.The Nielsen study found the average TV
viewer who uses the Internet simultaneously does
that for 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, and that 28 percent of the time
they are on the Web at home, they are also watching television.
(Source;
AdWeek)
HOW PEOPLE USE MOBILE VIDEO Two-thirds of Americans now own a
video-enabled mobile device, including iPods, cell phones, and
laptop computers, up from less than half three years ago, according to new
data being released
September 2 by Knowledge Networks. Of Americans age 13-54, 65.7% of
them have at least one
video-enabled mobile device, up from 44.9% in a 2006 KN study. The study
indicates that laptop
computer are the most prevalent technology, with 57.3% of Americans now
owning one, up from 42.8% in 2006.
(Source)
SOCIAL NETWORK POPULARITY
Forrester's report ("The Broad Reach of Social Technologies" ) found
that 51% of online U.S. adults utilize
social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, a large increase from
the 25% of users who reported
using social networking sites in 2007.
The survey classified a full 73% of online U.S. adults as spectators,
a
big increase from the 48% that it classified as such in 2007. Additionally,
the number of users who consume
no social media has fallen from 44% in 2007 to 18% this year.
(Source)
Almost all U.S. youths ages 18-24 participate in social media at
least once a month. (Source)
"Now more than half of adults aged 35 to 44 are in
social networks.
70% of online adults, ages 55 and older,
tell us they tap social tools at least once a month; 26 percent use social
networks and 12 percent create
social content. As a result, social applications geared toward older adults
will now reach a healthy chunk of their audience."
(Source)
US TEEN CELL PHONE USE GROWS (Pew Study)
In 2004, less than half of U.S. teens aged 12 to 17 owned a cell
phone, compared to 65 percent of adults.
By 2008, teens owning cell phones had increased to 71 percent, versus 77
percent of adults......
the cell phone wasn't the most prevalent
electronic device teens
owned, at least in 2008. The most
popular gadget was a game console, owned by 78 percent of the respondents.
Next was an iPod or
other MP3 player, which
just edged out the mobile phone with 74 percent. Only 60 percent of teens
said they owned a PC, whether it be a desktop or notebook. (Source/
Pew Study)
COMMON SENSE MEDIA's POLL OF SOCIAL NETWORKING (Aug
2009)
Teen social networking by the numbers
51 Percentage of teens who check their sites more than
once a day.
22 Percentage who check their sites more than 10 times a
day.
39 Percentage who have posted something they later
regretted.
37 Percentage who have used the sites to make fun of
other students.
25 Percentage who have created a profile with a false
identity.
24 Percentage who have hacked into someone else's social
networking account.
13 Percentage who have posted nude or seminude pictures
or videos of themselves or others online.
40%of
US households own a video game system, according to a August 2009 report
from the
Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing.But that number is flat from last year,
said the study. The most notable
growth area was in high-definition television adoption. HDTV ownership
grew from 35 percent last year to 53 percent this year. (Source)
NIELSEN: MORE TVs THAN HUMANS IN US
In 2009, there were nearly 115 million TV homes in the US,
each averaging 2.86 TV sets,
according to a new Nielsen study. That computes to nearly 329 million TV sets
-- more
than the entire US population, estimated at 307 million by the US Census
Bureau. (Huff
Post;
NY Post)
What activities do Americans do during a typical day,
and how much time do they spend on each activity?
The five activities that
take up the
most time besides sleeping (6.1 hours) are:
1. working (6.6 hours),
2. watching
television (3 hours),
3. using the Internet on a home computer (2.4 hours),
4. listening to the radio (1.7 hours) and
5. reading books (1.5 hours). Which activity are Americans
most likely to multitask on? Nine out of 10 online adults watched television
in the last 24 hours, and 72 percent of
them multitasked by using at least one of 12 other measured media.
The three
other activities they perform while watching television are surfing
the Web (not emailing) (27 percent), using their cellular phone (26 percent)
and emailing (23 percent).
(Source)
WHO'S USING FACEBOOK?
People 35 to 54 are now (July 09) the biggest age group on
the Web site, accounting for 28.2 percent of all U.S. users as of July,
according to
iStrategyLabs, an online marketing firm. Following close behind are 24-
to 34-year-olds, who represent
25.2 percent of users. (Source)
REPORT SAYS MORE GIRLS ARE USING VIDEOGAMES
The NPD Group in the report “Gamer
Segmentation 2009,” says that 28% of females
are playing video games on gaming consoles. That number is up 5% from 23% in
2008. Of the 65% of American households who
play video games or computer games, according to a 2008
Entertainment Software Association (ESA)
study, female gamers make up 40% of all players. And not
all female gamers are young. The 2008 ESA study reported that 33% of women
ages 18 and up play
video games – surpassing the 18% of boys ages 17 and younger who play video
games. (source)
HOW TEENS USE MEDIA
(link
to
the report )
The leading type of media use among teens is still
television, with the average teenager watching 3 hours and
20 minutes per day, countering the myth of YouTube as the lead medium.
Actually, Nielsen says that teens
watch more TV than ever, with usage up 6% over the past five years in the
U.S. In comparison, a typical teen
only watches about 11 minutes of online video per day, Nielsen found, or an
average of about 3 hours per month.
That is much less than adults ages 18-24 who watch 5 hours and 35 minutes
per month and even less than
adults ages 35-44 who watch 3 hours and 30 minutes per month Other key findings of the study
include:
* Half of all teenagers use an audio-only mp3 player each day, while one in
four watch video on an mp3 player.
* On an average day, one in four teens reads the newspaper.
* While teens multi-task in their media usage, this behavior may actually be
lower than among adults.
* South African, Venezuelan and Indonesian teens are the biggest couch
potatoes.
* 35% of U.S. teens may have DVRs, but they prefer live TV viewing.
(Source)
In one study, teens were consuming one
form of media 77% of the time while observed, making them
less prolific multitaskers than adults when it comes to media.
"Television is still the dominant
medium of choice for teenagers" and they're watching more of it
than
ever before.
Teens prefer live television to DVR
time-shifted programming.
When it comes to going to the movies,
teens lead the pack and prefer the big screen to DVDs, online
rentals and on-demand offerings.
Teens consume less online video than
adults.
With 11 hours and 32 minutes a month
of web browsing, teens are surfing the net half as much as the
average US internet user.
Teens generally visit the same
categories of sites as adults do.
Despite the popularity of online music
and portable music devices like the iPod, "Radio is the top source
of music consumption for 16% of teens globally and the secondary source
for another 21%".
29% of teens aged 18-20 claim to read
the newspaper daily; 34% claim to read the newspaper on Sunday.
Teens are more receptive to
advertising than adults once ads get their attention.
(Source)
BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS the Pew Internet and American Life Project's latest study
found that 63 percent of Americans now have
high-speed access at home, compared to 55 percent in May 2008.
(Source)
SURVEY: ONE IN FOUR KIDS HAVE THEIR OWN GAME CONSOLE
the recent NPD Group survey also
found that 37 percent of kids aged 4 to 14 who use a portable
gaming console (such as the Nintendo DS or the Sony PSP) actually own
them—or rather, their
parents and/or generous family member/friend gave them one. (And in nine out
of ten cases,
it was brand new.) The figure for personal media players: 30 percent. (Source)
CENSUS REPORT: INTERNET USE SOARS
64% of Americans 18 and older reported using the Internet in 2007, up from
just 22% a decade earlier.
62% of the nation's households report using the Internet at home in 2007, an
18% increase from 1997.
Among households using the net in 2007, 82% reported using a high-speed
connection,
and 17% used a dial-up connection.
(Source;
see also
Census PR)
STUDY: 99% OF VIDEO IS STILL SEEN ON TV
This study, which was sponsored by media research firm
Nielsen, however, concludes that the average adult in the U.S.
still watches an almost unbelievable 5 1/2 hours of live TV every day. 94%
of adults watch TV on any given day, while
most people only watch online videos for a few minutes a day.
TV (including DVR playback) represents
99% of all the video
watched by U.S. adults, and even for the youngest group in the sample, those
18-24, online video only represented
2% of all screen time. Users 18-24 spend more time in front of their
computer screens than any other group
(143 min a day on average), but still watch 210 min of TV every day.The older a person, the more time
they are likely
to spend in front of their TV (421 min for those 65 and
older).
(Source)
AGING PRINT READERSHIP The average age of magazines' readers is
catching up with the overall population. The
media age of adults in the US increased 1.3 years to 45.2 since Spring 2004,
according to the
Spring 2009 Mediamark Research report. But adult readers at the nearly 200
publications
and publishing groups tracked in both studies saw their median age rise 1.6
years to 44.
About 56% of the titles tracked in both years posted age increases higher
than the general
adult populations. (Source)
NIELSEN SAYS AMERICANS WATCH MORE TV THAN EVER Three Screen Reports indicates: the
average American watches approximately
153 hours of TV every month at home, a 1.2% increase from last year.
In addition, the 131 million Americans who watch video on the Internet watch
on average about 3 hours of video online each month at home and work.
The 13.4 million Americans who watch video on mobile phones
watch on average about 3 ½ hours of mobile video each month. (Source)
STUDY: MULTITASKING TV & WEB RISES BETWEEN MONDAY AND THURSDAY
Nearly three times the number of
people combine TV watching and Internet surfing on Thursdays
than do so on Mondays, according to a new study. As
reported by Adweek,
the study by
Integrated Media Measurement Inc. found that 5.8 percent of viewers watching
broadcast
television multitask with Internet use on Monday, rising to 15.9 percent by
Thursday.
(Source)
INTERNET BECOMES FORCE IN 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
More than half of U.S. adults used the
Internet to participate in the 2008 election --
the first time that threshold has been crossed
Some 55 percent searched for political news online, researched candidate
positions,
debated issues or otherwise participated in the election over the Internet
* 45 percent of Internet users watched online videos
related to politics or the election;
* 33 percent of Internet users shared political
content with others;
* 52 percent of those on a social network used it
for political purposes.
According to the Technology Gap Survey’s findings, new
technologies have blurred the lines between personal and professional tasks
–
especially online technologies such as blogs and social networking sites.
The survey found:
Gen Y workers spend an average of
10.6 hours a day accessing social networking sites, news Web sites,
blogs, Internet forums,
and multimedia sharing Web sites, versus 5.6 hours reported by Boomers.
Sixty-two percent of Gen Y
professionals report accessing a social networking site from work,
versus only fourteen percent of Boomers.
Thirty nine-percent of Gen Y workers
report using gaming programs at work, versus fourteen percent of
Boomers.
Source:
Press release; link to
survey
Watching TV On The Internet
TV viewing on the Internet is increasing; 33 percent of
broadband consumers under the age of 30
watch a TV program on the Internet at least once per week.
Consumers over 30 who watch a TV program on the Internet weekly watch 20
percent less traditional,
live TV broadcasts than their peers. (Source: Connected Life Market
Watch quoted
here)
Video Consumption in the US
(Ball
State University’s Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners for the
Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence)
-99%
of video consumption on televisions, the Web and mobile is on traditional
TVs - Younger baby boomers in the 45- to
54-year-old age group average the most daily screen time, a little more than
9 ½ hours.
Other age groups average about 8½ hours.
-The study found that TV users were exposed to 72 minutes per day of TV ads
and promos
- The data shows that 18-to-24-year-olds — generally college students and
new entrants into the work force —
watch the smallest amount of live TV of any age group (three and a half
hours a day), spend the most time
text messaging (29 minutes a day) and watch the most online video (5.5
minutes a day).
(Sources:
New York Times;
TV Week; link to
press release)
American Kids Study 2008/Mediamark Research
& Intelligence (MRI)(excerpts)
American kids age 6-11: 71.1%
accessed the Internet in the past 30 days -Of those: 83.4% did
their Web surfing at home; School (#2) 29.6%, bookstore/library(3rd) 6.82%
- 81.2% reported accessing the web to play online games
- 86.8% of youths played a video game; 29.1% played a video game on a cell
phone
- Of the nearly 50 Web sites measured by the study, three of the top five
are TV sites
(Disneychannel.com, Nick.com and Cartoonnetwork.com)
-More than
half (57.0%) accessed the web because advertising drove them there. (Source;Source)
According to
the New York Times, 17.5 million young people, aged 13-17, own cell
phones
News Sources & Habits: Pew
Research Center for People and the Press
When it comes to local news, more people say
they get that news from local TV stations than
any other source. 68% say they regularly get local news from
TV reports or TV station websites,
48% say they get news from local newspapers in print or
online, 34% say they get it from radio
and 31% say they get local news, more generally, from the
internet.
Newspapers have long struggled to attract
younger readers. A recent analysis of newspaper
readership by Pew Research found that just 27% of Generation
Y - those born in 1977 or later -
read a newspaper the previous day. That compares with 55% of
those in the Silent or Greatest Generations,
born prior to 1946. (Source)
Social Nets Overtake Email Social networking has overtaken e-mail
as the most popular Internet activity, according to a
new study released by Nielsen.
Active reach in what Nielsen defines as "member communities" now exceeds
e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent.
What's more, the reach of social networking and blogging venues is growing
at twice the rate of other large drivers of
Internet use such as portals, e-mail and search. (Source)
Alcohol & Influence on Teens an estimated 11 percent to 20 percent
of U.S. teens have T-shirts, headwear, jewelry, key chains and other
paraphernalia emblazoned with brands of alcoholic beverages (Source)
Global Mobile Phone & Internet Use - Six in ten people around the world
now have cell phone subscriptions; developing
countries now
account for about two-thirds of cell phones in use
- Internet use more than doubled. An estimated 23 percent of people on the
planet used the Internet
last year, up from 11 percent in 2002. (source: International
Telecommunication Union
report;
AP News story)
Mobile, DVR Video Show Fastest Growth The Nielsen
Company reported (February 23) that viewing of video on television, Internet
and mobile devices -- the Three Screens --
continues to increase and has reached new heights. In its fourth quarter "A2/M2
Three Screen Report," Nielsen reported
that the average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month, an
all-time high. Meanwhile, Americans who
watch video over the Internet consume another 3 hours of online video per
month and those who use mobile video
watch nearly 4 hours per month on mobile phones and other devices. (Source,
Nielsen PR)
Who's Twittering? Over one in ten (11%) online adults in
the US say they have used Twitter — or a similar service
–- to share updates about themselves or view updates about others. Nearly one in five (19%) online adults
ages 18-24 used Twitter and similar services,
as have 20% of online adults age 25-34.
Use of these services drops steadily after age 35,
with 10% of 35- to 44-year-olds, and 5% of 45- to 54-year-olds, using
Twitter. The decline is starker
among older internet users; 4% of 55-64-year-olds and 2% of those 65 and
older use Twitter. 14% of users who access the internet
wirelessly via a laptop, handheld or cell phone
have used Twitter or the like, compared with 6% of users who go online but
do not do so wirelessly.
(source-Pew
Internet & American Life Project)
Handheld devices and youth study
- nearly nine in ten (86%) of
15 to 17 year-old Internet users have a handheld device, whether it is a
cell phone (69%), an iPod or
other MP3 player (66%), a PSP (31%) or a Smartphone (12%). According to the
study, one quarter (26%)
of 15 to 17 year-old Internet users pay for Internet access on their cell
phone, compared to 11% of 35 to
49 year-old Internet users. Similarly, one quarter (24%) of 15 to 17
year-old Internet users watch video
on their handheld devices on a monthly basis.
(Source
The Broadband Content and Services 2008(TM)Report study
)
Mass Media, Magazine Influence Continue Declines Only 18% of U.S. consumers cite magazines as
a source of information they have consulted in the last month,
down from 23% in 2006, according to recent research from Ketchum Public
Relations. Trade magazines and
newsletters showed only a slight decline, from 13% to 12% over the past two
years. The periodical world
is not alone in this steady erosion of mass media authority. In its study of
traditional media usage, Ketchum
also found that national TV declined as an information source, from 71% in
2006 to 65% in late 2008, local TV
news fell from 74% to 63% and local newspapers went from 69% usage to 63%.
The only old-school mass medium
that enjoyed a gain was cable network news, which climbed from 47% of use in
2006 to 49% last year.
Peer-to-peer authority is replacing mass media on all fronts. As information
sources, family and friends’ advice
rose from 44% to 47% as an information source, while coworker advice went
from 23% to 30%.
The flight from top-down authority in the information value chain is
clearest in online usage. Virtually every
P2P category of interactivity, most notably blogs and social networks,
exploded in their use and influence,
the 1,000 U.S. respondents in this survey showed. (source)
Consumer Usage of Online Media (% of U.S. Consumers Using)
Online Media
2006
2008
Search Engines
61%
59%
Email Newsletters
40%
42%
Cable TV News Sites
38%
31%
Social Networking Sites
17%
26%
Company Website
22%
26%
Blogs
13%
24%
Shopping Sites
17%
35%
Videocasts
6%
11%
Podcasts
5%
7%
Company Emal Blasts
7%
9%
Business News Sites
8%
8%
RSS News Feeds
5%
7%
Mobile Media
5%
6%
Source: Ketchum Global Media Network and
Global Research Network partnered with the University of
Southern California Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center
on this study.
What we do with our mobile phones?
According to comScore Mobile, a
higher percentage of users in the 13- to 24-year-old group
compared with the older group use their phones for services like texting.
(Source:
NYT 1/21/09)
Service
13-24 25-52
Sent text message
57% 28%
Sent email
11
9
Took photos
14
5
Used I.M. service
9
4
Used photo/video network 9
4
Sent photo to a phone
8
3
Sent photo to a pc
6
2
Sent photo via email
5
3
Captured video
5
2
Uploaded photo to Web
4
2
Older adults among newer members on social
networking sites (Pew Study)
the study found that 35% of adult Internet users now have a profile on
at least one social networking site.
And among online adults ages 35-44, 30% have a profile.
Although the share of online adults with a profile
quadrupled from 8% in 2005, Pew found that the
young are still more likely to use these sites. Among 18-24-year-olds, 75%
of those who go online have a profile.
75% of online adults 18-24 have a profile on a social network site
57% of online adults 25-34 have a profile on a social network
State of Media Democracy 2009 Survey
Reveals millennials view their computer as more of an entertainment device
rather than their TV
The study
found that
millennials, or Generation Y,watched the fewest hours of television per
week. They averaged only 10.5 hours per week.
In
comparison, Generation X watched 15.1 hours, baby
boomers watched 19.2 hours and seniors watched 21.5 hours.
While the
numbers may seem odd for a generation that is notorious for its
technological savvy,
the study found that millennials spent the most amount of time watching DVDs
on the computer and also the most time playing video games,
listening to music and surfing the Internet. (Source:
News story/
Deloitte PR)
The State of The Media Democracy study: Young people watch
less TV
-"millennials," the generation of ages
14-25, watch just 10.5 hours of TV a week
- Generation X (ages 26-42) watches 15.1 hours,
- Baby boomers (43-61) watch 19.2 hours
- and 21.5 hours for matures (62-75).
- 33% of respondents owned a DVR
- millenials spend less time watching DVDs of movies and TV shows on
television sets, 4.8 hours a week, than do Gen Xers.
They are, though, spending more time watching DVDs on a computer -- 1.9
hours a week -- than any other age group.
- Millennials spend an average of 1.8 hours a
week at the movies, while it's just one hour for Gen Xers,
0.9 hours for Boomers and 0.7 hours for Matures.
(Sources:
Reuters/New
Tee Vee/Hollywood
Reporter/Adweek; details of the
new study; link to 2007
study)
CISCO's Worldwide Media Survey Released
U.S. consumers watch the most TV: an average of 3.8
hours per day.
Germans watched 2.9 hours on average; Swedes, 2.1 hours; and urban
Chinese, 1.8 hours.
Urban China has the largest percent of users who watch online video
via their PCs, at 97 percent,
with the U.S. following at 81 percent.
The U.S. has the largest percentage of users watching video on a
mobile phone, at 23 percent.
U.S. respondents who watch video on their mobile phone spend an
average of 36 minutes per day doing so.
Eighty-five percent of the German respondents are interested in
viewing Internet video on their TV sets,
compared with 55 percent of Swedes, 54 percent of Americans, and 35
percent of urban Chinese.
U.S. respondents watch 2.5 times as much professional video content
(TV programs and movies)
as they do user-generated video content on their PC or laptop. German
respondents watch twice
as much user-generated video on their PC or laptop as they do
professional video content.
On average, American respondents who use a PC or laptop to view
video spend 1.5 hours per day doing so.
They are well ahead of the Swedes (who spend 0.7 hours per day),
equal to the Germans (1.5 hours per day) and slightly below the Chinese
(1.9 hours per day).
(Source:
CISCO PR; see also
World Internet Project International Report)
The two networks now draw regular users
about evenly, with 63% of U.S. social
networkers
using MySpace, 60% using Facebook
and—perhaps obviously—34% using both.
Facebook has
posted strong expansion numbers in the last
two years.
They’re not all just lurkers, either.
Approximately 105 million U.S. broadband
users, or 76% of
the total U.S. broadband population, have
actively contributed something to a social
networking site:
anything from publishing a blog or Web site
to posting to a wiki or uploading video
content.
About 40 million, or 29% of that population,
make those contributions regularly—
outnumbering the 33 million who don’t
contribute to social networks. (Source)
Youth and Online Gaming Virtual Worlds
• 34 percent of
American children and teens who use the Internet
visited a virtual world at least once a month in
2008.
That’s expected to rise to 42 percent in 2009.
• 71 percent of
digital kids feel their virtual worlds are very
important to them.
• 13 percent of
adults say their children are spending less time
with real friends and more with virtual ones
• 75 percent of
youngsters said in a survey that they use the
Internet to participate in communities tied to
social causes.
• Virtual worlds
like Elf Island, World of Warcraft, Ultima
Online, Second Life, Webkinz and scores of
others allow
players to interact with others worldwide. They
are known as “massively multiplayer online
games.”
• About 10 million
people worldwide visit at least one virtual
world often.
• A new three-year
study funded by the MacArthur Foundation
concludes that youngsters who play online are
acquiring
technical skills and “learning to be competent
citizens in the digital age.”
• A survey found
that digital kids have a hankering to “make a
difference” and help the planet
Sources: University
of California-Irvine, Center for the Digital
Future of University of Southern California,
Media Research Lab of Iowa State University,
Just Kid Inc. (found in
AJC story, Jan 2009)
What do we know about blogs/bloggers?
U.S. bloggers = 57 percent male (parity is
near);
One in four bloggers spends 10 hours or more blogging each week
77 percent of the bloggers surveyed comment on other blogs
The Pew Internet & American Life Project -
which in September 2008 revealed that 97% of kids play videogames
- has now (December 2008) found that more than half of American adults (53%)
play computer games, with one in five (21%)
playing every day. In particular, men and "urbanites" are more likely to
play than women and "rural-dwellers."
(Source/link
to Study)
Nielsen Study: Media Use Grows On All Fronts
the average person in the U.S. watched 142
hours of TV a month, up 4% from last year.
People who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, up 6%, and those
who
watched video on mobile phones watched three hours a month, unchanged
compared with a year ago.
-- DVR use is significant: Americans spend more than six hours a month
watching DVR-timeshifted TV,
more than double the amount of time they watch video online.
-- Men are more likely than women to watch video on mobile phones, but women
are more likely than
men to watch video on the Internet.
-- Online video use grew steadily through the quarter when there were major
events including
the Olympics, Major League Baseball games, the political conventions and
debates, and the financial crisis. (Source;
Full Report:
Americans Can’t Get Enough Of Their Screen Time)
Only 88% of US Youth Have Internet Access
While some 88 percent of young Americans have
access to the Internet, that figure is
far behind Internet access for youngsters and teens in other
countries. For instance,
95 percent of Canadian youth have Internet access; the Czech
Republic and Macao
come in at 96 percent, Israel at 98 percent. And the winner?
Apparently 100 percent
of young Britons have access to the Internet. The U.S. also
trails Sweden, New Zealand,
and Canada in Internet usage by citizens over 18 years old.
(Source)
Internet Popularity In 1995, when The Harris Poll(R) began
measuring online activity, less than 18 million adults
used the Internet in their homes, offices, schools, libraries or other
locations. Now, thirteen
years, later, fully 184 million adults are online. While most people (75%),
and almost all those
use the Internet, use it at home, more than two out of five adults (43%) go
online at work
and a third (32%) do so at other locations (schools, cybercafes, libraries,
etc.) (Source)
DVR USE ESCALATES
Even though digitalvideo
recordersare installed in the
homes of only 28 percent of the country,
twice the number of people are using them for time-shifted viewing than used
VCRs when they
were present in 90 percent of U.S. homes, according to a study by
Interpublic Group's (IPG)
Magna Global. The study also discovered that DVR viewing accounts for 11
percent of all household
viewing -- rising to 16 percent among the 18-49 age group.(Source)
Nielsen finds strong TV-Internet usage overlap
Average TV viewership still dwarfs online
activity in the home -- 127 hours vs. 26 hours per month
among those who use the Internet, with video "streaming" on the Web
accounting for just two hours
and 19 minutes. As a group, teen girls are the most likely to engage in
streaming, 82 percent. While
31 percent of in-home online activity occurs at the same time the user
is watching TV, the lion's share
of all household TV viewership -- almost 96 percent -- takes place apart
from the Internet,
the Nielsen study found. Not surprisingly, perhaps, a higher percentage
of teenage TV viewing
coincides with Internet use, 5.4 percent compared with 3.8 percent for
the general population,
Nielsen found. (Source: Yahoo News: 10/31/08)
Popularity of Online Video
a study by Ipsos Media found that
about 54% of female Internet users ages 12 and up have streamed
a video online in the past 30 days, up from 45% a year ago. That’s
an all-time high and nearly equal
to the 58% of men who have streamed online video in the past month.
Ipsos also reported that 60%
of adults 35 to 54 have recently streamed online video, up from 49%
in late 2007 (Source)
Price of a 30 second ad in network TV the average cost for a 30-second commercial in prime time was $130,089
during the 2007-2008 season
(source:
Adage)
Popularity of Video Games Among the survey's findings: Ninety-seven percent of young
respondents play video games. That's 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of
girls,
with little difference in the percentages among various racial and ethnic
groups and incomes. In fact, 7 percent of
those surveyed said they didn't have a computer at home, but did have a game
console, such as Sony Corp.'s
PlayStation, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox or Nintendo Co.'s Wii.
(Source:
Pew Internet & American Life Project )
Podcast Popularity The
latest Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 19% of
Internet users had downloaded podcasts to
listen or view at a later date. A similar study in August 2006 found that
just 12% of Internet users had done this.
An earlier study of downloading habits, in February and April 2006, found
that just 7% of users had downloaded a
podcast in this manner, the UK's Guardian reports.
(Source;
Source)
Preferring the Web to Watching TV
-For children ages 10 to 14
who use the Internet, the computer is a bigger draw than the TV set,
according to a study recently released by
DoubleClick Performics
- 83 percent of Internet users in that age bracket spent an hour or more
online a day,
but only 68 percent devoted that much time to television.
-
While 72 percent of the
children online belonged to a social networking site (usually MySpace),
60 percent of them said they rarely or never read blogs. (Source)
Up
To Age 11, Most Kids Aren't Heavy Internet Users
-While the "vast majority" of 6- to-11-year-olds use the Net, 55% of 9-
to-11-year-old boys and
46% of girls in the same age group report using the Internet for less than
an hour, or not at all, during the past week.
-While
TV's attraction for kids is certainly being diluted by other media, more
than 40% of 9- to-11-year-olds watch
two or more hours of television on school days. Furthermore, half of the 10
Web sites most popular among 6- to-11-year-olds
are sites directly related to television networks.
-About
80% of younger kids and 90% of older kids use computers at school, and 75%
of younger kids and 85% of older kids
use computers at home. One in four girls and one in five boys in the 9-
to-11-year-old age group have a computer in their room.
Kids are most likely to spend their time on computers playing games.
(Source)
Pew Study: TV Remains Top Source of News (August 2008)
Pew found that the largest group of news
consumers — 46 percent of those polled — have a "heavy reliance"
on television for their news at all times of the day. This group is the
oldest, with a median age of 52, and least
affluent, with 43 percent unemployed. They are unlikely to own a
computer or go online for news.
Overall, among those who get some of their news from TV, fewer are
watching the 6:30 broadcast network newscasts,
and instead opting for cable news sources such as CNN or Fox News
Channel. CNN's audience is now majority Democratic,
while 39 percent of Fox News viewers are Republicans, 33 percent
Democrats, with the remainder independent or didn't specify.
The group that relies most on the
Internet for news is the youngest at a median age of 35. It is also the
smallest,
at 13 percent of those polled. Fewer than half of them watch television
news on a regular basis. Eighty percent of this
group has a college education and they are twice as likely to read an
online newspaper than a printed version.
The emergence of this group and the
shift among integrators online led to an overall decline in the
percentage of people
who said they read a newspaper the day before, to 34 percent from 40
percent two years ago, the researchers found.
That is also reflected in a shift in the industry that has seen
circulation figures slip in recent quarters.
(Source:
News Story/Link to
full Pew Study)
Since 2006, the proportion of Americans who say they get news online at
least three days a week has increased
from 31% to 37%. About as many people now say they go online for news
regularly (at least three days a week)
as say they regularly watch cable news (39%); substantially more people
regularly get news online than regularly
watch one of the nightly network news broadcasts (37% vs. 29%). Since
2006, daily online news use has i
ncreased by about a third, from 18% to 25%. Television is still the
chief source of news for 46% of the American
public. This TV-dependent group was the oldest in the study with a
median age of 52 and it was less affluent than
groups like the "integrators." The Pew data was less promising for
newspapers. Only 34% told Pew they had read
a newspaper the day before. That was down more than 15% from the 40% who
read a newspaper just two years
before. And Pew had one frightening fact for those who pay close
attention to the news business: one-third of
people under the age of 25 said they consumed no news on a typical day.
(Source: newsletter mediamonitoringnews.com)
Web Searching Rises
The percentage of Internet users who use search engines on a typical day
has soared from about one-third of all users in 2002,
to a new high of just under one half (49%), according to the latest study
from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Underscoring the
dramatic increase over time, the percentage of
internet users who search on a typical day grew
69% from
January 2002 to May 2008. During the same
six-year time period, the use of email on a
typical day rose from 52% to 60%, for a growth
rate of just 15%.
The Pew Internet &
American Life Project concluded that these new
figures propel search further out of the pack,
well ahead of other popular
internet activities, such as checking the news
(39%) or checking the weather (30%) on a typical
day. (Source/link
to
Pew study)
Half of Adults Text, Blog, Use Other Social Media
22% of all American adults say
they rely on instant messaging, up from 9% in 2007.
21% of adults age 18-34 rely on
instant messaging, up from 14% in 2007.
Only 41% of US adults say they've never
sent a text message, down 8% from a year ago.
Among 18- to 34-year-olds, the proportion of those who have never sent a
text message has fallen to 22%, a decline of 16% from last year.
10% of US adults now
publish blogs. That number was only 5% last year.
Younger Americans publish
blogs at twice that rate: Some 20% of US adults age 18-34 publish a
blog, up from 10% last year.
(Source:
Universal McCann's Media in Mind study)
US TV viewers' average age hits
50
According to a study released by
Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets' average live
median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last
season. For the just-completed
2007-08 TV season, CBS was oldest in live viewing with a median age of 54.
ABC clocked in at 50, followed
by NBC (49), Fox (44), CW (34) and Univision (34).(Source: Variety)
US Broadband Study According to Pew’s
most recent
study, (July 2008) over half (55%) of all Americans now have a
high-speed Internet connection at home, up from 47% a year ago.
(Source)
Media Habits of African Americans An estimated 68% of black Americans are online, compared to 71% of all
Americans, according to a survey
from Radio One and research firm Yankelovich. Looking at blacks'
media usage, 84% of housholds have cable
and 87% listen to the radio in a given week. On TV, 64% watch news or
newsmagazines, 50% watch court
shows, 46% watch entertainment shows, and 41% watch sports. Eighty-one
percent watch black TV channels,
but about 50% of those surveyed said they do not relate to the way black
people are portrayed on black-focused TV shows.
(Source)
Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2007 details media uses
35% of
students watched television 3 or more hours
per day on an average school day (see
table).
This is down from 43% in 1999.
25% of
students used a computer for something that
was not school work for 3 or more hours per
day on an average school day (see
table). This is up slightly from 22% in
2003. (Source)
Americans Consuming More Video Content The (Multiplatform Video Report released by
Solutions Research Group) study found that an average
American consumer aged 12 and older with Internet access now spends 6.1 hours
daily with video-based
entertainment, up from 4.6 in 1996. Of this 6.1 hours, 63.9% (nearly 4 hours per
day) currently comes from
traditional Television, including live, DVR and video-on-demand viewing. Video
games, web and PC video,
DVDs and video on mobile devices account for the balance. (Source;
other details
here)
Who Uses YouTube? According to a
new study from
Nielsen Online, the largest number of tykes and preteens go to YouTube
for video (or 4.1 million viewers aged 2 to 11), followed by the
Disneychannel.com at a distant second,
with 1.3 million viewers in that age bracket for the month of April.
MySpace.com, NickJr, and
Google Video also showed up on that list.(Source)
Gen Y Media Habits (June 2008) Event Marketing Institute study found:
-- 80% of Gen-Yers
own three or more personal media devices;
-- 96% of Millennials go online daily;
-- For 78% of them, cell phones are the most popular methods of
remote communication.
(Source)
Still Glued to the Tube Focusing on the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, the Television Bureau of
Advertising (TVB) survey
found that 53% of their total daily media hours are spent with TV, more than all
other mediums combined,
and that more of them are reached by TV than other mediums: As much as 90%
reported watching TV in
the previous 24 hours, as opposed to 80% for radio, 72.1% for the internet,
58.9% for newspapers and
48.3% for magazines. The time spent with TV in the same 24-hour time frame was
also significantly higher
(222.7 minutes) when compared with radio (106.5), the internet (99.7),
newspapers (22.1) and magazines (15.1). Source
Teens Survey of Online/TV Viewing Habits
When 512 teens were asked
what content they watched most on "any device," 76% said
user-generated clips,
with comedy skits or stand-up routines coming in second
and music videos third. Less than one-half (44%)
said they watched sitcoms, and only 36% said they
watched dramas. If the kids are to be believed, they
watch more news and political clips (42%) than
celebrities and gossip (25%). The good news for TV is
that
83% reported still watching some traditional television,
while 44% said they also watched content on a
desktop computer and 24% on a laptop. The teens surveyed
were not watching clips on mobile devices in
large numbers, with only 15% saying they watched on
portable media players and only 8% on cell phones,
although the media-player figure increased to 28% among
those identifying themselves as early adopters.
The telephone survey was conducted Feb. 6-10 of kids
12-17. (Source;
CTAM
Study)
In -Home Video Game Growth
Nielsen released a new study (May 08) that claims that there is at least
one video game console in
41 percent of all U.S. households. This is an 18.5 percent increase from the
fourth quarter of 2004. The Nielsen study concluded that about 46 million U.S. homes have a
console game device in them
by the last quarter of 2006. That averages about 150 million people that
have access to a video
game console. The study further found that two-thirds of men who are between
18 and 34 years
of age in television households also have access to game consoles. (Source:
“The State of the Console” from Nielsen Wireless and Interactive
Services, cited
here)
Kids Multitask While Watching TV Excerpts from Grunwald Associates study:
50 percent of
9-to-17-year-olds visit web sites they see on TV
even as they continue to watch;
45 percent of
teens have sent instant messages or e-mail to others
they knew were watching the same TV show
One-third (33
percent) of 9-to-17-year-olds say they have
participated in online polls, entered contests,
played online games or other online activities that
television programs have directed them to while they
are watching.
Watching TV, without the TV
A study in October (2007) by Nielsen Media
Research found that one in four Internet users had streamed full-length
television
episodes online in the last three months, including 39 percent of people ages 18
to 34 and, more surprisingly, 23 percent of those 35 to 54.
(Source)
Internet Outpacing TV For Time Spent A new study by IDC found that
Internet users spent 32.7 hours per week online and about half as much time
watching television (16.4 hours).
Time spent reading newspapers or magazines accounted for 3.9 hours per week,
while overall time spent using all media was 70.6 hours. The most frequent online activities
include using search engines (84% of respondents), followed by using navigation
services (83%),
personal research (77%), and using email (76%). (Source)
Four in Five of All U.S. Adults – An
Estimated 178 million – Go Online (Nov. 2007) In research among 2,062 U.S. adults
surveyed by telephone in July and October, 2007, Harris Interactive®
found
that 79 percent of adults are now online. This is a steady rise over the past
few years, from 77 percent in
February/April 2006, 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring
of 2002, 64 percent in 2001
and 57 percent in Spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track
Internet use in 1995, only nine
percent of adults reported they went online.
The amount of time that people are spending online
has also risen. The average number of hours per week that
people are spending online is now at 11 hours, up from 9 hours last year and 8
hours in 2005. (Source)
Classroom has an impact – Type and amount of
media use is influenced by classroom environment and workload more
significantly than for adults in the workplace. Consequently, future studies
should include weekends and vacation time as well as school days.
Concurrent Media Exposure (CME) a factor? –
In their free time, teens were frequently found to be using more than one
medium. However, constraints in the classroom lowered the overall incidence of
concurrent media exposure to levels below those recorded for adults in
previous studies.
Less media time than adults? – Due to lower
levels of media consumption in school compared to adults' media use in the
workplace, overall time spent with media for teens in the study was less than
previously recorded for adults.
However, when time out of school is looked
at in isolation, teen media consumption achieved and may have exceeded total
time spent with media for adults in previous studies.
It's all about screens – The dominance of
screen-based media, as compared to types among this group when out of school,
stands in stark contrast to both overall levels of media use and the presence
of print during the school day. Screen-based prime time starts immediately
after school and carries on until bedtime. The study also found that levels of
activity were observed before the start of the typical school day. (Source:
Muncie Free Press)
Time Spent With Media The average American consumer spent 3,530 hours with media in 2006--down
0.5% from 2005, according
to the just-released estimates from the 21st edition of Veronis Suhler
Stevenson's Communications Industry Forecast.
(Aug. 2007:
Source)
Social Media Participation Study
- in the first survey by the
Interpublic Group (2006), a little over half of respondents said they read
blogs.
Their latest survey (2008) found that over 70% did. -
Their first survey found that 30%
watched video online, while this year over 80% had
- In 2006, less than 30% said they set up a social network profile, while
this year over 60% had.
-
A little over 60% of Internet users
in the U.S. said they read blogs, whereas 26% had created one. Over 70% of
Internet users blog in South Korea and China,
and about 90% of South Koreans read blogs and 88% read blogs in China.
(Source)
Podcasting Explosion
eMarketer estimates that there was
a 285% increase in size of the US podcast audience in 2007, a growth to 18.5
million.
(Source)
Global Online Commerce
More than 85 percent of the world's
online population has used the Internet to make a purchase -
increasing the
market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years..the most
popular
and purchased items over the Internet are:
- Books (41% purchased in the past three months),
- Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36%),
- Videos / DVDs / Games (24%),
- Airline Tickets (24%)
-and Electronic Equipment (23%).
Source:
Nielsen Global Online Survey
Kids & Digital Media
According
to the Kids & Digital Content study, kids are downloading online video clips
onto a device 7.1
times per month, followed by music videos at 5.7 times per
month, music at 4.2 times per month, games
at 3.1 times per month, and ring
tones/ring tunes at 2.8 times per month. Playing games is the most
prevalent
activity on the four key devices – 84 percent are gaming on a computer, video
game system,
portable digital music player (PDMP) or cell phone – while more
than half are listening to music and
one-third are communicating with images
or interacting with various video formats (Source
NPD Group)
"State of the Media Democracy"
Deloitte & Touche new media study
About 62 percent of "millenials"
(consumers 13-to-24-years-old) are using their cell
phones as entertainment devices,
up from 46 percent in the previous study. And among
Generation X consumers (25-to-41-year-olds), the number
grew
to 47 percent from 29 percent in the earlier survey.
About 20 percent of consumers said they are viewing
video content
on their cell phones daily or almost daily.
The percentage of consumers
watching TV online jumped from the 23 percent figure
reported in the previous study.
Roughly 54 percent of those surveyed said they are
making their own entertainment content through editing
photos,
videos or music, 45 percent said they are producing that
content for others to see, and 32 percent said they
consider
themselves to be "broadcasters" of their own media.
(Source: Reuters
News Story ;
reported in Hollywood Reporter)
Pew "Teens & Social Media" Study some of thehighlights:
Nearly two-thirds of teens - 63 percent - have a cell phone
35 percent of all online teen girls blog, compared with 20 percent of online
teen boys.
32 percent of girls ages 12 to 14 blog, compared to 18 percent of boys age
15 to 17.
YouTube and other video sharing sites tend to be the domain of boys. Online
teen boys are
"twice as likely" as girls to post video files online, by a 19 percent to 10
percent margin.
Fully 41 percent of teens who use MySpace, Facebook or similar sites say
they send messages to friends
via those sites every day. More than half of teens - 55 percent - reported
having a profile on sites like
MySpace or Facebook, and 42 percent of those teens said they also blog,
while 70 percent said they read the blogs
(Source: link to
study)
Nokia Study of Future of Entertainment Options The study, entitled
'A Glimpse of the
Next Episode', carried out by The Future Laboratory, interviewed 9000
trend-setting consumers from 17 countries about their digital behaviors and
lifestyles signposting emerging entertainment trends.
Among the results:
- 23% buy movies in digital
format
- 35% buy music on MP3 files
- 25% buy music on mobile
devices
- 39% watch TV on the internet
- 23% watch TV on mobile
devices
- 46% regularly use IM, 37% on
a mobile device
- 29% regularly blog
- 28% regularly access social
networking sites
- 22% connect using
technologies such as Skype
- 17% take part in Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Games
- 17% upload to the internet
from a mobile device
Tweens & Mobile Phone Use
Some 35% of
U.S. "tweens," defined as kids aged 8-12, own a mobile phone, and 5% access
the Internet over their phones each month,
according to a
new study (Dec. 2007) from The Nielsen Company. The study also found
that 20% of tweens have used text messaging, while 21%
have used ringtones or ringback tones. Of the 5% of tweens who use their
phones to access the Internet, 41% said they did so while
commuting or traveling, while 56% did so at home. At home was also where the
majority of tweens said they downloaded or watched
TV on their phones (58%) or downloaded or played music on their phones
(64%).
AOL Latino Study of Hispanic Media Habits
Already, 58 percent of Latino consumers own a desktop computer, and there
are more than 16 million Latinos online,
according to AOL Latino's latest Hispanic Cyberstudy. The AOL study
indicates that Latinos are wired in many ways:
68 percent use instant messaging; 63 percent share photos online; 52 percent
read or post blogs;
43 percent visit social networking sites; and 40 percent talk on a phone
using the Internet.(Source)
Videogames: Not Just for Males
38%
of game players are women.
7.4
hours a week is what the average
woman plays (7.6 hours for men).
33
is the average age of game
players.
24-35
is the age of women who
prefer online games played with other people.
12
is the average number of years a
person has been playing video games.
35%
of parents play video
games with their children; 47% are women.
61%
of parents feel that
video games are a positive force in their children's
lives.
89%
of parents are present
for a video-game purchase or rental.
50%
of women who register
their Wii systems say they're regular players.
Sources: Consumer
Electronics Association, Entertainment Software
Association, Nintendo of America
(as published in Star Telegram
story)
Youth Radio and New Media
Habits Survey
The Paragon Media Strategies
online poll of 14- to 24-year-olds found that 73% listen to music on sources
other than radio (CDs, mp3s, iPods, streaming, satellite radio, etc.). Even
so, radio maintains a 41% share of the younger demo in time listening to
recorded music. Other poll findings: females ages 19-24 indicate
their use of radio is significantly more than the other three age/gender
groups. Listening to music on sources other than radio is more pronounced
among younger and male respondents. 44% are listening more, while 40% are
listening less to radio than before. iPods and personal mix CD's were
found as the major threats to radio time spent listening (TSL). 78% have iPods,
and half of them (49%) are now listening less to radio (18% are listening
more). 68% of iPod owners have personalized playlists and are creating their
own content. Over three-quarters said they listen to personalized music CDs
(mix CDs), and a third of them (32%) are now listening less to radio (19% are
listening more). October 2007
Source
Parents Watch More TV Than Their Teenagers
-In
2007, female parents age 45-54 will spend 47.6 days watching television.
Those who are 35-44 will watch television for 38.3 days.
-As for fathers, those 45-54 will spend 40.2 days watching television,
and those 35-44 will spend 33.9 days sitting before the screen.
-Their teenage children from 13-17 will spend 33.35 days watching
television.
-- 43 percent of parents think violent
content contributes a lot to violent behavior in children.
-- 55 percent think sexual content contributes a lot to inappropriate sexual
behaviors.
Concerns about media exposure
-- 51 percent of parents are very concerned
that their children are exposed to too much sex.
-- 46 percent are very concerned that their children are exposed to too much
violence.
-- 20 percent say their children are exposed to a lot of inappropriate
content.
Concerns about media exposure, by race
-- 67 percent of black parents, 57 percent of
Hispanic parents and 45 percent of white parents are very concerned about
their children's exposure to sex.
-- 64 percent of black parents, 55 percent of Hispanic parents, and 39 percent
of white parents are very concerned about their children's exposure to
violence.
Monitoring children's media exposure
-- 65 percent of parents said they closely
monitor their children's media use.
-- 18 percent said they should be doing more to monitor their children's media
use.
Concerns about the Internet
-- 73 percent of parents said they know "a
lot" about what their children do online.
-- 7 percent said they know little or nothing about what their children do
online.
-- 59 percent said the Internet is mostly a positive influence on their
children.
Cell phone usage: nearly 16% of US homes have no land lines One in four people aged 18 to 24 had only cell phones, as did 29 percent
of those aged 25 to 29,
the study showed. The percentages declined with age after that, with 2 percent
of those 65 or over having only cell phones.
Other findings:
-15 percent of Hispanic adults, 13 percent of black adults, 12 percent of
Asians and 11 percent of whites had only cell phones;
-22 percent of the poorest adults had only cell phones, double the rate for
those who are not poor;
-13 percent of males and 11 percent of females had cell phones only;
Explosion in Social Networking: study
reveals
More than 70% of Americans 15-34 are actively
using social networks online
The research found that brands such as adidas
and Electronic Arts attributed more than 70% of
their marketing return on investment to the “Momentum
Effect.”Of those
polled, 69% said they
utilize social networks to connect with existing
friends and 41%
said they use the sites connect
with family members.
In
addition, the "Never Ending Friending" study revealed that current social
networkers spend on
average more than seven hours per week on social networking sites, and that
those hours are driving
the growth of overall time spent online. More than 31% of online social
networkers
claim they spend more time on the
Web in general after starting to use a social network. (Source)
More evidence of teen and pre-teen
multi-tasking
Kids
between the ages of 2 and 12 years old spend more than a quarter of
their leisure time doing
two or more activities at the same time. Favorite pastimes among the
sample group included reading,
using the computer, spending time with friends, listening to music and
watching TV. Kids today have
plenty of leisure time, with 2-to-11-year-olds averaging roughly 68
hours a week, and 5-to-12-year-olds
averaging 58 hours. Toddling 2-to-4-year-olds are true layabouts,
averaging 94 hours of leisure time every week.
(Source:
NPD Group's "Kids' Leisure Time II" report, cited in Emarketer
news story)
1 in 3 Americans watch TV away from home:
study One-third
of U.S. television viewers watch broadcasts outside their home, a Arbitron
study released April 4 shows, suggesting that a larger audience than thought
is tuning into TV at bars, work,
at a friend's house or the gym. The Internet,
portable music players and other types of new media have
widened the
entertainment choices for Americans, creating competition for the $70 billion
in advertising
money the TV industry attracts a year. By age group, 64 percent
of 12-17 year olds watched TV away
from home at least once per week; 49
percent of 18-24 year olds watched away from home; and about
23 percent of
those aged 55 and older watched away from home. Of all respondents, more
watched TV in
someone else's home than anywhere else, at 25 percent. By
comparison, 11 percent watched at a
restaurant or bar and 7 percent at work.
(Source:
Reuters)
YOUTH EXPOSURE TO ADS ON TV Kids 8-12-years old
see an average of 21 food ads a day--more than 7,600 a year--
most of which are for candy and snacks (34%), cereal (28%), and fast food (10%).
(Source
BC News; March 2007-Kaiser Family Foundation
study)
WHO HAS INTERNET AND WHO DOES NOT
According to a new study from Park Associates, a
technology market research company in Dallas,
29 percent of U.S. households have no internet service provider and no plans to
get one. (Source)
NIELSEN RESEARCH ON TV USE There are an average of 111.4
million TV homes in the United States for the 2006-07 TV season. The average U.S. TV home has 2.5
people and 2.8 television sets. 28% of U.S. TV
homes have digital cable. 64% of homes have wired cable
hook-ups (down from 68% in 2000) and 23% have satellite or specialized antenna
systems to receive television signals. 82% of U.S homes have more than one television
set at home.
84% of U.S. homes have a DVD player. (Source)
VIDEO GAME USAGE More than one in three U.S. adults who
go online, or 37 percent, own a video game
console and 16 percent own a portable gaming device (Source
Nielsen//NetRatings)
MEDIA HABITS OF CHILDREN AGE 6-11 * Forty percent of
MP3/Digital Media Player owners reported owning Apple's iPod
* 975,000 have visited/used MySpace.com in the last month
* 2,376,000 have downloaded music online in the last month
* 1,367,000 have written or read an online journal/blog in
the last month
* Fifty-four (54) percent (or 13,078,000) have a television
in their room
* Twenty-six (26) percent (or 6,263,000) have a stereo in
their room
* Nineteen (19) percent (or 4,658,000) have a computer in
their room
(Source:
Fall 2006 National Kids Study;
additional details)
TWEEN MEDIA HABITS
An annual survey by Solutions Research
Group for YTV, showed that tweens - kids ages 7 to 12 - spend 45% of their media
time watching TV, 14% on the Internet, 12% on video games, 11% on music, 11% on
radio, 6% on DVDs and 1% on cell phones. Kids watch about 17 hours per week of
television, according to BBM Nielsen Research. Although tweens are spending 14%
of their media time on the Internet, teens ages 12 to 19 spend 25% of their
media time on the Internet. (Source)
INTERNET: MORE INFLUENTIAL THAN TV/MAGAZINES? 50 percent of broadband users in the
U.S. say a recent purchase was influenced by the Internet, 36 percent were
influenced by shopping sites and 15 percent by search engines. This was more
than TV commercials (11 percent) and magazine advertisements (6 percent),
showing the growing impact of online sources on purchasing decisions, as
revealed in Netpop | Shop, a recent study by Media-Screen, a market research
firm that focuses on online consumer trends. (Source)
SOURCES OF POLITICAL NEWS The Internet still trails television
and newspapers as the leading sources for political news, but it
gained significantly in usage since the midterm elections of 2002,
the Pew Internet and American
Life Project found. The study, released 1/17/07, revealed that
69 percent of Americans cited television and 34 percent considered
newspapers their leading choices for news; survey respondents could
specify their top two. Radio and the Internet each got about 15
percent, while magazines had 2 percent. Even among online users, the
Internet was a leading source for only 22 percent. It rises to 35
percent for high-speed Internet users under age 36. (Source:
AP)
PEW STUDY ON TEEN INTERNET USE In the ever-growing field of
MySpace-Facebook-teenager data analysis, the
Pew Internet & American
Life Project
released a survey January 7, 2007 that finds 55 percent of all teenagers online
use social networking sites.
The Pew survey found that 70 percent of teen girls, ages 15 to 17, had profiles
on social networking sites,
compared with 57 percent of boys in that age bracket.
DVDs OVERTAKE VCRS IN HOMES 81% of households now own a DVD player,
while just over 79% have a VCR, according to Nielsen Media Research’s
third-quarter (2006) home technology report.Nielsen’s survey also showed that 73%of
homes currently have a computer, while nearly 27 % of homes rent or own an MP3
player and more than 16% of homes own a PDA. Households with children or teens
are more likely to own a computer, and those homes with children ages 12 to 17
are two and a half times likely to own or rent an MP3 player. (Source
AP;
link to
report)
2007 MEDIA HABIT PREDICTION It turns out that in 2007, American
adults and teens will spend an estimated 3,518 hours - or nearly five months
each - plus $936.75 per person consuming media. Predictions:
Those numbers are provided in a communications
industry forecast that is included in the U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical
Abstract of the United States: 2007: "Media Usage and Consumer Spending: 2000 to
2009." (Source)
GENERATION M MULTI TASKING STUDY (KAISER)
A new (Dec. 2006) study from the
Kaiser
Family Foundation says that teens and kids do there fair share of media
multitasking. One area that sees the least multitasking is TV. 55 percent of the
time teens are not multitasking while watching TV. The same goes for video
games. The activity that has the most multitasking involved is e-mail. When
using e-mail they are multitasking nearly 80 percent of the time.
(Source)
BROADBAND USE: POPULAR AT HOME
More than three-quarters of residential Web
users got on the Internet using a high-speed broadband connection in November
2006, according to a study released December 11. The 78 percent broadband
penetration rate for U.S. homes represents a jump from 65 percent a year
earlier, Nielsen/NetRatings found. The research company said broadband users
spent 33 percent more time online than dial-up users _ nearly 35 hours for the
month, compared with 26 hours and some change for dial-up. Broadband users also
viewed twice as many Web pages. Games, instant messaging, e-mail and social
networking were among the leading activities among high-speed users. (Source)
GEN X, Y MEDIA HABITS In a Forrester Research study of North American households' media habit, Gen
Xers (age 27-40) reported spending more time per week watching TV than using the Internet, 11.2 hours
vs. 9.5. Among Gen Yers (age 18-26), Internet time exceeded TV time, but by a relatively modest
margin (12.2. hours vs. 10.6). (Source)
TRACKING AUDIENCE GROWTH FOR PODCASTS Twelve
percent of Web users surveyed in August said they have downloaded a podcast--up
from 7% who said the same in a survey conducted between February and April.
Those numbers appear higher than what was reported in July by media measurement
company Nielsen//NetRatings, which
found that 6.6% of U.S. adult Web users had downloaded a podcast in the last
30 days. (Source:
Pew Internet & American Life Project )
TV WATCHING VIA THE COMPUTER One out of every 10 online
consumers is watching television shows on a computer, according to
a report released October 25.
(Source:
The Consumer Internet Barometer,
produced by The Conference Board )
RTNDA FUTURE OF NEWS STUDY
TEENS TUNE INTO NEWS ON THE INTERNET, KNIGHT FOUNDATION STUDY SHOWS
66 percent of high school students get their news and
information from the news pages of Internet portals such as Google and
Yahoo!,
45 percent from national TV news web sites,
34 percent from local TV or newspaper web sites,
32 percent from blogs and
21 percent from national newspaper sites.
45 percent of high school students say TV provides the
most accurate news;
23 percent say newspapers,
and 10 percent say blogs
46 percent of students get news and information at least
once a week from entertainment shows such as The Daily Show, The Colbert
Report and South Park.
31 percent of high school students post comments on blogs
or online columns at least once a week.
Only 10 percent of teens say they are not at all
interested in the news, mostly because they feel it isn’t presented in an
interesting way.
Nine of 10 teens are wired to the Internet through school
and eight in 10 through the home.
(Source:
www.firstamendmentfuture.org.)
US Has More TVs Than People ( AP, Sept, 22, 2006 )
NEW YORK (AP) - Televisions have taken over the average American home.
Nielsen Media Research says the average home in the U-S now has more television
sets than people to sit down and watch them. The researchers say there are now
two-point-73 T-V sets in the typical home, compared to just two-point-55 people.
Nielsen says half of American homes now have three or more T-Vs, while only 19
percent have just one. In 1975, 57 percent of homes had only a single set.
Nielsen also says more people are watching more television, as sets are turned
on for more than eight hours a day in the average home. The average person
watches for four hours and 35 minutes of television each day. (Source: AP;
Nielsen)
More than 50%
of homes have at least three
working televisions. USA average: 2.8.
(Frank N. Magid Associates/By Tracey Wong Briggs
and Gia Kereselidze, USA TODAY)
TV Viewing Continues to Rise The total average time a household
watched television during the 2005-2006 television year was 8 hours and 14
minutes per day, a 3-minute increase from the 2004-2005 season and a record
high. The average amount of television watched by an individual viewer increased
3 minutes per day to 4 hours and 35 minutes, also a record. Meanwhile, during
primetime, households tuned to an average of 1 hour and 54 minutes of primetime
television per night, up 1 minute, and the average viewer watched 1 hour and 11
minutes, which was the same as last year.
Although teenagers typically drive
the consumption and development of new media platforms, teens
age 12-17 viewed 3% more traditional television during the full
day than in the 2004-2005 television year. This increase was
driven primarily by teenage girls, who increased their Total Day
viewing by 6%. Increases among teenage girls were particularly
high during early morning (6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) and late
night (11:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.) viewing, which were up 12% and
6%, respectively.
Younger
children age 2-11 also watched more television during 2005-2006,
increasing their total day viewing levels by 4%. Viewing by
children increased 3% during primetime, 5% during early morning
and 6% during late night.
During 2005-2006, African
American and Hispanic Total Day persons’ viewing levels
increased 4% and 3%, respectively, with significant increases
among children and teenage girls. African American viewing among
children age 2-11 and teen girls age 12-17 increased 10% and 9%,
respectively, while viewing among Hispanic children and teenage
girls increased 14% and 6%, respectively. (Source;
Nielsen)
# of Commercials in Prime Time (September 2006) The average hour of prime-time
broadcast network programming contained two minutes and 51 seconds
of in-show brand appearances in the second quarter, according to TNS Media
Intelligence. On top of that
were 18 minutes and 12 second of commercial messages. That means to about 35
percent of each
prime-time hour contains marketing content.
Source
Nielsen Revises TV Market Sizes Based on Homes With Television (August 2006) The total number of television
households within the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) is now
estimated at 111.4 million, an increase of 1.1 percent since last year,
according to Nielsen
Media Research. These estimates, which are projected to January 1, 2007, will be
used for
the entire 2006-2007 television season. Nielsen today also reported many shifts
in local market
rankings, in large part because of more people migrating to the Southern and
Western regions
of the U.S., as well as a significant shift in New Orleans.
(Full report including list of TV markets can be found
here)
Major Study of Online Users
Gen Yers spend 12.2 hours online every
week -- 28 percent longer than 27- to
40-year-old Gen Xers and almost twice as long as 51- to 61-year-old Older
Boomers.
Gen Yers are also much more likely to engage in Social Computing activities
while online.
For example, they are 50 percent more likely than Gen Xers to send instant
messages,
twice as likely to read blogs, and three times as likely to use social
networking sites like MySpace.
Other results:
-- Forty-one percent of North American
households now have broadband Internet
access at home -- up from 29 percent at the end of 2004.
-- Seventy-five percent of North American
households have mobile phones, and almost half
of them make the bulk of their long-distance phone calls on these mobile phones.
-- Forty-five percent of Gen Yers, 27 percent
of Gen Xers, and 17 percent of 41- to 50-year-
old Younger Boomers who have a mobile phone use it for data services, led by
text messaging,
ring tones, and games.
-- Cross-channel shopping continues to grow.
Gen Yers, for example, are 73 percent more likely
to research online and shop offline today than they were in 2004.
-- Ninety-one percent of online households use
a search engine once a week or more. For
online Gen Yers and Gen Xers, Google attracts 62 percent of searchers, and 25
percent limit
their searches to only Google.
-- Seventy-eight percent of online Gen Yers and
61 percent of online Seniors aged 62 and
up book or research travel online.
6.6% of the U.S. adult online population, or 9.2 million Web users,
have recently downloaded an audio podcast; 4.0 %, or 5.6 million Web
users, have recently downloaded a video podcast. These figures put the podcasting
population on a par with those who publish blogs, 4.8 %, and online daters, 3.9 %.
However, podcasting is not yet nearly as popular as viewing and paying bills online, 51.6 %,
or online job hunting, 24.6 %. (July 2006, Nielsen/Net Ratings Source)
Spending Habits of Teens Teenagers spent over $158 billion in
2005 and are predicted to spend $205 billion in 2008.
(Source)
Common Sense Media Poll on Parents, Kids &
Internet Use
(June 2006) • 85% of Parents say the Internet is the most risky for kids compared to 13%
for TV
• 91% of Parents say that the Internet helps their kids explore things they’re
passionate about
• 77% of Parents say they see the Internet as an important tool to help their
kids learn
• 80% of Parents worry about predators in their kids’ Internet use
• 76% of Parents say they would like to make the Internet a safer place for kids
• 83% of Parents say There is no excuse for not knowing enough about the
Internet to protect your kids or teens
• 88% of parents think it’s more important to know what their kids are doing
online than to respect their kids’ privacy
• 87% of parents seek out information about their kids’ Internet use a few times
a month
(Source)
Study: More
and More Children Using Consumer Electronics
TV DOMINATES MEDIA USAGE (April 2006)
According to a TVB study of 1,183 people in
January, which was released at TVB's annual marketing conference in New York,
adults spent an average of 264.5 minutes per 24 hours watching TV, compared to
125.5 minutes for radio, 85 for the Internet, 20 for newspapers and 16.3 with
magazines. The study found that TV advertising is the most influential, with
81.8% naming TV. Newspapers were next at 62.2%, but the Internet was also
strong, just behind print at 59.8%, ahead of magazines at 51%. On the news
front, broadcast TV won out again, cited as the primary source by 43% or
respondents, compared to 23.8% for cable news networks. Broadcast TV also scored
points for public service, named as the most involved in their community by
54.3%. Newspapers were second at 25.9%. Cable news networks were named by 6.3%,
and only 2.7% named public TV stations. (Source:
Broadcasting & Cable)
ACCESSING NEWSPAPERS ONLINE GROWS
A study being released
April 3, 2006 by the Newspaper Association of America, a trade group, found that
one in three Internet users — 55 million — visit a newspaper website every
month. Also, unique visitors to newspaper websites jumped 21% from January 2005
to December 2005, while the number of page views soared by 43% over the same
period. (AP, via
USA Today)
WATCHING VIDEO ONLINE 24% of Internet users access video at least once a week, while 46% watch
video at least once a month. News leads the way in frequency of viewing, with
27% of online video viewers watching at least once a week, followed closely by
funny videos (26% watch at least once a week). Online video viewing is very
common at home (39% of those with home Internet access watch at least once a
week) compared to 19% of those who watch at least once a week at work,
according to
Online Publishers Association.
TIME SPENT USING HOME COMPUTERS The average person now (2006) spends 30.5 hours per month using their home
computer;
two years ago (2004) the average person spent only 25.5 hours at their PC
each month.
(Study by Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId
LOCAL NEWS DRIVES NEWSPAPER READERSHIP A
new survey (by the market research business Outsell Inc.) finds that
61% of consumers look to their newspapers as an essential source for
local news, events and sports, followed by television (58%) and radio
(35%).
Seventy-one percent of respondents say they rely on network, cable and
satellite TV for national news. Source: News
StoryLink
to full study
NEWSPAPER ADULT READERSHIP UP? (If you count online...)
According
to a recent FCC report, Americans spend close to 30 percent of their day
engaged in some activity involving media, with television viewing being the
dominant media activity.
From
September 2004 to September 2005, the average household tuned into TV for
eight hours, 11 minutes per day.
But
the report also said that while TV consumption is growing, cable subscribership
has
declined slightly in the past year. Cable’s share of the video market is
approximately 69.4 percent,
but that is down from almost 71.6 percent a year earlier. (Source)
MAGAZINES, OTHER MEDIA & MULTI-TASKING
According to a new study from Ball State
University's Center for Media Design,
consumers paid significant attention to magazines when used in conjunction with
radio,
TV, and the internet. Newspapers ranked second. Nearly
half of all magazine consumption
takes place with the TV on, as well, while more than half - 51.6 percent - of
all newspaper
time takes place with the TV on. Magazines
also show heavier readership on Mondays and
Fridays, while newspaper readership is highest on Sundays. TV, radio, and
internet exposure
is lowest on weekends.
Source: MediaBuyerPlanner 2/06/06; Link to study:here
Other findings from the study:
TV dominates in the home, radio is the main
medium in the car and computer usage
is common both at work and home.
Magazines are the medium with the largest
proportion of time used at "other" locations,
which is due, in part, to print publications found in public places where
people wait for service.
Most people read newspapers in the morning.
TV dominates as a news source in the early
morning; up to 70 percent of participants
watch television in the evenings.
The study also found that, when using more
than one medium at once, consumers paid
significant attention to magazines. Newspapers ranked a distant second, but
held a
substantial lead in attracting attention relative to the Internet, radio or
television when
more than one medium was used.
AGE OF INTERNET USERS Age Pct of Americans In Age Group Online
12-17 87%
18-24 82%
25-29 85%
30-34 83%
40-44 76%
45-49 73%
50-54 68%
55-59 68%
60-64 55%
65-69 57%
70-75 26%
76+ 17%
(Source: Wash Post 2/6/06 quoting Pew Internet & American
Life Project surveys conducted Oct.-Nov. 2004 (teens) and
Jan.-June 2005 (adults)
ONLINE CONSUMERS SPEND AS MUCH TIME ONLINE AS IN FRONT OF THE TV According to a new report entitled: "U.S. Entertainment and Media
Consumer Survey, 2005,"
authored by JupiterResearch Analyst Barry Parr, the average online consumer
spends 14 hours
a week online, which is the same amount of time they watch TV.
Source: http://www.jupitermedia.com/corporate/releases/06.01.30-newjupresearch.html
New study reveals more multitasking The new white paper "Engaging the Ad-Supported Media" reveals:
• Television dominates in the home, radio is the main medium in the car and
computer usage
is common both at work and home.
• Magazines are the medium with the largest proportion of time used at
"other" locations,
which is due, in part, to print publications found in public places where people
wait for service.
• Most people read newspapers in the morning.
• Television dominates as a news source in the early morning; up to 70 percent
of participants
watch television in the evenings.
• Magazines show heavier readership on Mondays (29.1 percent) and Fridays
(34.7 percent),
newspaper readership peaks on Sundays and television exposure is lowest on the
weekends.
• Participants were observed using all five ad-supported media while involved
in everyday
life activities. For example, for time spent with television, the top three
non-media activities —
eating, housework, and work — were relatively equal, together occupying about
19 percent
of TV viewing minutes.
• Radio maintained its reputation as a classic background medium, with
participants listening
as an exclusive activity only 24 percent of the time.
• Almost half of all magazine exposure is experienced with television in the
background, while
television is the highest-ranked partner for newspapers by average minutes
(51.6 percent of all newspaper time).
Source: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/517630/
and http://www.bsu.edu/cmd/insightresearch
Video game users statistics New survey by Entertainment Software Association and conducted by Peter D.
Hart Research Associates, showed that the typical "gamer parent" is 37
years old, has been playing video and computer games for an average of 13 years,
and spends 19 hours each month on the activity.
The survey showed that 35 percent of U.S. parents play video and computer
games. Of those, 80 percent play video and computer games with their children,
and 66 percent believe playing the games has brought their families closer
together. (Source: News
story)
Popularity of Blogs A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project ( www.pewinternet.org
)
that by the end of 2004, about 8 million people had created a blog.
Source: news
story
Internet Use 2005
The year 2005 showed the most Internet use to
date with 78.6 percent of Americans going online with the average weekly
usage rising to 13.3 hours. In 2000, 46.9 percent of users reported that
they use home Internet access. This number increased to 66.2 percent in
2005, according to the study.
Once the main portal to the Internet, the
telephone modem is no longer the most common type of Internet connection.
Only 45.6 percent of users reported that they access the Internet via a
telephone modem, down from 61.5 percent in the previous study. Users
accessing the Internet via a Broadband connection are currently at 48.3
percent and continue to increase.
AVERAGE Time spent watching TV (Fall 2005 vs Fall 2004) 4:39 (Four hours 39 minutes) the average time a person spent watching TV
each day this Fall
4:35 (last fall)
(Source: NY Times, 1/9/06)
Music Listening Preferences
85 percent of the 2,000 teen-to-twenty-somethings interviewed claimed they
would choose to listen to music from their MP3 players rather than traditional
radio. 54 percent said they’d prefer to listen to music over the Internet as
compared to the 30 percent who chose AM/FM. And 31 percent were exposed to new
music over the radio versus 72 percent who found that new music on the Internet. (Source: 12/8/05 “How to Make Music Radio Appealing To The Next
Generation" USC MediaLab)
10th Annual Videogame Report Card
87% of 8- to 17-year old children play video
games at home. More than nine out of ten (92%) boys play video games at
home, while 80% of girls say they play at home.
Less than half (47%) of children say their
parents understand all of the ESRB ratings.
Only 26% say that a parent has ever stopped
them from getting a video game because of its rating (28% boys, 23% girls).
Seven out of 10 children report playing
M-rated games.
There are vast differences between boys and
girls, with 86% of boys admitting that they play M-rated games compared to
49% of girls.
Almost two-thirds (61%) of children report
owning their own M-rated games, up from 56% in 2003. 78% of boys say they
own M-rated games.
Almost half of children (45%) say they have
bought M-rated games themselves (up from 37% in 2003).
Only 55% of children said a parent was
present the last time they bought an M-rated game (down from 65% in 2003).
Gaming is the top online activity.
CD players outnumber MP3 players for music listening
70% want to make a lot of money when they are older.
When asked what they do when TV commercials come on,
nearly 60% of respondents say they watch them.
Source: http://www.mediamark.com/mri/docs/press.html
More from this study: more than half said they listen to music on CD players
more than MP3 players, and that most (74%) listened to music most often on car
radios. Surprising to me, only 4.1% said they listen on an MP3 player, though
I’m sure this number is going up as MP3 players get cheaper and cheaper.
Source:
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2006/01/kids_dont_skip.html
Video game users
According to a soon to be released study of 4,000 adults and 1,000 teens conducted online for
Jack Myers Media Business
Report, 62 percent of all males and 47 percent of all females played video games either on consoles or online in the past week. Males spent an average of one hour and six minutes daily and females 42 minutes daily. Eighty percent of males 18-24 played video games in the past week as did 55 percent of females 18-24.
Among teens, 71.5 percent of all males and 47.7 percent of all females played video games either on consoles or online in the past week. Males spent an average of one hour and 54 minutes daily and females an average of 36 minutes daily. Source: http://www.adrants.com/2005/11/gaming-medium-growing-in-pervasiveness.php
African Americans & TV
According to Nielsen Media Research, the
television is on in the typical African-American
home 11 hours, 10 minutes a day, compared with 7 hours, 34 minutes in white
homes.
Nielsen translates that to about 79 hours a week of TV in black homes compared
with
about 52 hours in white homes. On average, black children watch nearly two hours
more
television a day than white students, which translates to 14 hours a week that
black
students could be reading or doing homework.
(Source: Boston Globe Op Ed by Derrick Z. Jackson, November 6, 2005)
Youth media use Sixty nine percent of kids 6-14 have TVs in their bedrooms, according to
Nickelodeon’s
"U.S. Multicultural Kids Study 2005." That’s compared to 49% who
have videogame
systems in their bedrooms, 46% who have VCRs, 37% who have DVD players,
35% who have cable or satellite TV service, 24% who have PCs and 18% who
have
Internet access.......The high percentage of TVs in kids bedrooms comes at a
time
when Nielsen is reporting the highest levels of TV viewing among kids in more
than
20 years. Through Oct. 9, 2005, kids aged 6-11 watched 23 hours and 3 minutes a
week,
according to Nielsen. That’s compared to 21 hours and 18 minutes in 1992.
Source: http://www.progress.org/2005/tv02.htm
Teen blog users revealing personal info About half of all the blogs on the Internet are authored
by teenagers, according to a 2003 study by the Perseus Development Corp. (a web
survey software provider); and a majority of the top 15 sites visited by teens
17 and under in January of 2005 were either blogs or social networking sites,
according to comScore Media Metrix (an Internet audience profiler).
A study of teenage blogs published by the Children's Digital Media Center at
Georgetown University revealed that two-thirds of teenage bloggers provide their
age and first name; 60 percent offer their location and contact information; and
one in five divulge their full name on their sites.
Source: http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/20051026/News/110260007
Average American Family TV Viewing
(Nielsen Survey, Sept. 2005)
Of all the adults studied, researchers
determined that about:
• 91 percent watched television, for an
average of nearly 241 minutes a day,
and mostly at home.
• 73 percent listened to the radio, for an
average of 80 minutes a day, more
in the car than at home or work, but home-and-work listening combined
was
a higher percentage of usage than in-car listening.
• 73 percent used a computer, for an
average of nearly 136 minutes a day,
more at work than at home.
• 63 percent read newspapers, books or
magazines, averaging nearly 33 minutes
a day, mostly at home, but a sizable number did so at work or other
locations.
• 59 percent used mobile phones, more at
work than any other location, for an
average of nearly 11 minutes, and 32 percent used a variety of video
products,
mostly at home, for an average of nearly 33 minutes.
Young Children's TV Viewing Nielsen Media Research estimates that there are 15.9 million children
aged 2 to 5, and Nielsen figures show that the children watched an
average of 3 hours and 40 minutes of television a day during the
2004-5 TV season - 13 minutes more than the 2000-1 season.
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/26/business/media/26kids.html)
Internet consumption twice as high as magazines and newspapers
During a typical week, the Forrester
Research respondents were found to spend around
10 hours per week on a PC, with 6 hours actively spent browsing the
Internet
compared to 13 hours watching TV, 7 hours listening to the radio, 3.4
hours
reading newspapers and 2.4 hours reading magazines.
Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/66525.html
Internet Use by Kids & Teens (September
2005)
eMarketer's new report, "Kids & Teens: Blurring the Line between Online
and Offline," says kids and teens make up 19% of all US Internet users.
That's some 18.8 million teens and another 14.1 million children. About 73% of
teens ages 12-17 and 39% of children ages 3-11 are online regularly. http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/050907/094702.html
RADIO Paragon
Media Strategies has released a study that says radio is still
the primary music-listening source for 51% of its respondents, age 18 to
64.
Purchased CDs are second, at 30%. Forty-eight percent said radio is their
primary source for hearing new music.
If video killed the radio star in the 1980s,
then it seems video games are trying to do
the same thing to TV in this decade, according to the Digital Gaming in America
survey
released Aug.9 by Ziff Davis Media. The study noted that 24% of gamers reduced
their
TV watching over the past year and 18% expect to cut small-screen viewership
next year.
Video gamers watched 11.1% less TV than last year, dropping their weekly TV
viewership
to 16 hours, compared with 18 hours in 2004. The gaming population showed an
11.4%
increase to 76.2 million video gamers this year, compared with 67.5 million a
year ago.
The percentage of U.S. Internet users, ages 12-17, who do the following online:
89% - Send or read e-mail
84% - Go to Web sites about movies, TV shows, music groups, sports
81% - Play online games
76% - Go online to get news or information about current events
75% - Send or receive instant messages
57% - Go online to get information about college
43% - Buy online merchandise
22% - Look for information about a health topic that's hard to talk about
by
Jack Loechner,
Tuesday, Jul 5, 2005 3:00 AM EST
MULTI-TASKING
WHILE CONSUMING MEDIAThe latest Simultaneous Media Survey from
BIGresearch details a new hurdle for advertisers, multitasking, the
engagement in other non-media activities while consuming media, and the
numbers are large. According to Joe Pilotta, VP of Research, BIGresearch,
"The complexities of everyday life seem to be increasing, and as a
result consumers are multitasking as a way of coping."
The 25-34 year olds
are most likely to engage in multi-tasking, says the report, when using
electronic media (TV, Radio, Internet) with almost 70% saying they do so
regularly or occasionally. The 55+ age group multitasks the least but like
the 25-34 year olds are most likely to do so when using electronic media,
60% say they multitask regularly or occasionally using TV.
The
percent of people 18+ who say they multitask while using various
media's
Multitaskers
Online
69.3%
Radio
69.0%
TV
68.1%
Mail
49.5%
Newspaper
40.9%
Magazine
40.2%
Source:
BIGresearch, June 2005
"It's apparent
that multitasking and simultaneous media consumption creates competition
for the same time and space. Media may be relegated to the background when
consumers multitask e.g. talking on the phone. When they simultaneously
consume media, one of the media can morph into the background and back to
the foreground intermittently. That is why understanding which media have
the greatest influence on purchasing various merchandise categories
becomes a key determinant for marketing ROI in today's complex media
environment," said Pilotta.
MONITORING KIDS ONLINE ACTIVITY
May 23, 2005--A new survey commissioned by the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children(R) (NCMEC) and Cox
Communications reveals that, while nearly half of the parents surveyed monitor
their children's online activity daily or weekly, the other half admit they
don't even know that such monitoring tools are available. The results are a
compelling backdrop for Internet Safety Month in June.
Other key findings:
-- Over half (51%) of parents either do not have
or do not know if they have software on their computer(s) that monitors where
their teenager(s) go online and with whom they interact.
-- 42% of parents do not review the content of
what their teenager(s) read and/or type in chat rooms or via instant messaging.
-- Teenagers who Instant Message use chat lingo
to communicate and parents don't know the meanings of some of the most commonly
used phrases. 57% don't know LOL (Laughing Out Loud), 68% don't know BRB (Be
Right Back), and 92% don't know A/S/L (Age/Sex/Location).
-- 95% of parents couldn't identify common chat
room lingo that teenagers use to warn people they're chatting with that their
parents are watching. Those phrases are POS (Parent Over Shoulder) and P911
(Parent Alert).
-- Nearly three out of 10 (28%) of parents don't
know or are not sure if their teens talk to strangers online.
-- 30% of parents allow their teenagers to use
the computer in private areas of the house such as a bedroom or a home office.
Parents say they are more vigilant about where their teen(s) go online if the
computer is in a public area of the household.
-- 58% of parents surveyed say they review the
content of what their teenager(s) read and/or type in chat rooms or via Instant
Messaging; 42% do not.
TIME SPENT IN FRONT OF TV
...actual hours in front of the tube vary
considerably. College-educated workers spend 1.4 hours a day -- 6% of their 24
hours -- watching TV. Consumers with a high-school diploma but no job spend four
hours a day -- 17% of their existence -- watching the small screen. The
study, based on 2003 data, found that Americans spend 11% of their life in front
of a TV screen. (excerpt from Bureau of
Labor Statistics report on how Americans spend their time... reported on
Advertising Age web site: http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=44895)
VIDEO GAMES
About 70 percent of males age 18 to 34 play video games and spend less time
consuming other media. According to Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, people
who see ads in games recall them better. In 2003, Nielsen said that males in
this age group played 30 billion hours of games, as much time as they spent
watching TV. And much of the playing occurred during prime time TV hours.
Source:http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/11364926.htm
LOS ANGELES, March 2 : Some
teenagers spend more than 90 minutes every day instant messaging and
e-mailing
their friends and downloading music online, researchers said Wednesday.
The most frequently cited reasons for instant
messaging are to "hang out" with friends and relieve boredom, Children's
Digital Media researchers said. The most common
topics are friends and gossip. "The Internet appears to serve social
functions similar to the telephone's," researcher Elisheva Gross
said.
The study examined the online habits of 200 12- to 15-year-old suburban
California students. It found students spend an
average 40 minutes a day instant messaging friends, 31.4 minutes
downloading music and 22 minutes sending and reading e-mail.
The study, reported in a special issue of the Journal
of Applied Developmental Psychology, was funded by the National
Science Foundation,
- -- Copyright 2005 by United Press International.
Electronic
Media & The Family This paper examines media messages and media experiences in the context of the family.
Video
Game Demographics
The
Entertainment Software Association released the latest stats on the video
gaming industry. Some key findings:
34%
of people under the age of 18 play computer or video games; 46% of
18-50 year-olds
The
top selling video game genres: 27.1% action, 17.6% sports, 11.3%
racing, 8.7% role-playing,
8.6% first-person shooters, 6.9% fighting and 4.7% family
entertainment.
TV's
Still The 'Greatest,' But Digital Technology Is Altering Media Preferences By Joe
Mandese Editor, MediaPost http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=277407 Monday, November 08, 2004
For
all the incursions of new digital media, television remains the
"greatest" overall
media experience among consumers by a margin of nearly two-to-one over the
next
most dominant medium, the Internet. But asked, which medium they
"prefer" the most,
more consumers would choose the Internet. These are among the key findings
of a
new study of consumer preferences for media conducted recently by
InsightExpress.
The research also found that
while TV still is the first medium Americans "turn to" and
the one they consider "easiest to use," they consider the
Internet to be the one that is
most "informative," and perhaps more importantly, the one that
offers the "greatest control."
Preferred Over All Others
TV 39%
Magazines 2%
Newspapers 8%
Internet 40%
Radio 4%
All Are Equal 12%
Source: InsightExpress. Base = 500 people surveyed online on Sept. 17, 2004.
The findings show that all
other media - including magazines, newspapers and radio - pale in
comparison
with TV and the Internet. They also reveal that the next generation of
digital media technologies may be
tipping the hand in favor of the Internet.
Among households with
digital video recorders - a technology that ostensibly would seem to give
consumers
more control over and satisfaction with television - respondents were even
more disposed toward the Internet.
While 42 percent of non-DVR
owners cited TV as the first medium they "turn to," only 33
percent of DVR owners
cited it. Conversely, a greater number (40 percent) of DVR owners said
they turn to the Internet first than non-DVR
owners (33 percent).
While the study did not
break out how other new media technologies are impacting consumer media
preferences
per se, Lee Smith, president-COO of InsightExpress, said some might also
be tilting preferences in favor of the Internet.
"My but as a researcher
is that broadband households would be slightly more favorable about the
Internet," he said.
"What this is telling
us is that people value control. They value the information content on the
Internet and I think
it's only a matter of time before the broadband capacity of the Internet
catches up and drives the entertainment value
of the Internet making it more competitive with television."
Consumer Preferences By
Media Attribute
Provides Is The Gives Me Is The Is the
Greatest Most Greatest First I Easiest
Experience Informative Control Turn On To Use
TV 46% 20% 22% 40% 42%
Magazines 3% 5% 3% 1% 3%
Newspapers 3% 23% 9% 12% 7%
Internet 27% 37% 49% 34% 24%
Radio 3% 4% 2% 9% 7%
All Are Equal 18% 11% 15% 5% 17%
Source: InsightExpress. Base = 500 people surveyed online on Sept. 17,
2004.
Read Gallup
Poll (Oct.2004) on Teen Leisure Habits: TV Still On Top
A new brief by the Kaiser Family
Foundation finds that while more students from
incomes and backgrounds are using computers and the Internet,
disparities continue
to exist in the quality of access (broadband versus dial-up, for
example) and in the
nature of the activities and work students are engaged in online.
The thought-provoking report "Children, the Digital Divide, and
Federal Policy"
is available online at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia091604pkg.cfm
These days teenagers (33 million of them
in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau)
and technology are a powerful mix. According to a 2003 study from the
Consumer
Electronics Association, 84 percent of teens ages 13-17 strongly agree
that new
technology gives them access to information that improves their life, 75
percent enjoy
the challenge of figuring out high-tech gadgets and 55 percent says
electronic gadgets
allow them to make a statement about who they are.
Quoted in: AdWeek (July 2004) http://www.adweek.com/aw/regional/southwest/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000575212
U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., spoke at length
last week (Feb.2004) about protecting
children from violent and indecent
programming. Here are some numbers he presented
to back up his case:
8,000 Number of TV murders the average child will witness before
completing elementary school
100,000 Number of acts of violence on TV the average child will witness
before completing elementary school
300 Number of studies demonstrating a link between media violence and
violent, aggressive, anti-social behavior in children
9% Portion of parents of children aged 2-17 who own a TV with a
V-chip
39% Portion of parents of children aged 2-17 that have never heard of the
V-chip
79% Portion of TV shows containing violence that did not receive the
appropriate “V” rating
SOURCES: Congressional Research Service, Kaiser Family Foundation surveys
Children's Bedrooms Are Media Havens -
Almost Two-Thirds Have a TV, 17% a PC; Significant Effects Seen on Media
Habits
Knowledge Networks/SRI study shows that kids with own-room
technologies
combine media more often, have less supervision
Menlo Park, CA; October 6, 2003:
According to a just-released Knowledge Networks/SRI study,
almost
two-thirds (61%) of children now have a television set in their bedrooms,
17% have their
own PC - and own-room access to such media technologies is
linked to substantial changes in how kids use media.
The new report, "How Children Use™
Media Technology," is part of the ongoing service
"The Home
Technology Monitor™," which combines semi-annual nationwide
surveys of media technology
ownership with special reports on key devices
and services. These special reports are usually based
on Knowledge
Networks/SRI's exclusive "How People Use®" media
methodology, a proven
technique for studying the quality of media
exposures.
Based on interviews with 245 children ages
8 to 17, the new study also shows that 35% of kids
have videogame systems
in their rooms, 14% have their own DVD player, and 9% have Internet
access
via a PC in their bedrooms. And the presence of these technologies
correlates with
significant changes in media behavior; for example, among
children with an own-room television:
46% do at least half of their TV viewing
on that set;
75% report multitasking while watching
TV (vs. 65% of kids without their own sets);
43% have visited a Web site as the
result of a TV ad within the past week
(vs. 24% of kids without their
own TVs); and
50% say they have parental rules for
their TV use (vs. 61% of kids without their own sets).
The relatively few kids with own-room
Internet access also report substantial effects on their media use:
57% say all of their Internet use takes
place in their rooms; and
61% report having parental rules
restricting their Web use, compared to 69% of
Internet-using kids who
do not have own-room Web connections.
Study:
Baby boomers are still fond of traditional methods in high tech age
Americans have become well known for
their ability to multi-task. A new study, by BIGresearch,
has found that Americans have begun multi-tasking in a new arena - media.
The study, which measures
simultaneous media usage (when consumers use a primary media source while
a secondary source is in use),
may change how marketers reach their target audiences. According to
the Simultaneous Media Usage Study,
roughly half of consumers engage in simultaneous media usage.
Study results included information such
as:
69% of males and 76% of females have
the TV on while online
51% of males and 52% of females read
magazines when they have the radio on
53% of males and 59% of females watch
TV when they read the newspaper
50% of males and 60% of females watch
TV when they read magazines
67% of males and 74% of females read
the newspaper while they have the TV on
Recent
Industry Research: Simultaneous Media Usage (provided by PBS) In
today's world, consumers live in a networked, interactive, and multi-media
environment.
Simultaneous media usage is a reality for approximately
50% of the population.
What is simultaneous media? People using
various types of media - - such as the TV
and computer -- simultaneously.
The
Simultaneous Media Usage Study (SIMM) Survey, published twice annually by
BIGresearch, quantifies how the public consumes multiple media. The latest
survey,
conducted from March 25 to April 22, 2003, included data from
12,230 respondents.
Some
of the findings show that:
33%
of males and 36% of females regularly watch TV while they are
online ·24%
of males and 29% of females regularly go online when they are watching TV ·17%
of males and 22% of females regularly watch TV when they read the mail
When
asked what they do when a television commercial come on:
15%
of the population regularly leave the room ·30%
mentally tune out ·30%
regularly watch, but not with full attention ·31%
regularly channel surf ·32%
regularly talk with others in the room or on the phone
US youngsters
hooked on to Net, TV say researchers
Indiantelevision.com
Team
(16 August
2003 )
NEW YORK: Most teenagers and young adults in the
US prefer surfing the Internet or
watching television over reading for
recreation, the US-based Centre for Media Research
quoted from an
eMarketer report recently.
The report stated that Harris Interactive and
Teenage Research Unlimited surveyed
2,618 people in the age group of 13 to
24 in June, and found that respondents spend
twice as much time per week
watching TV as reading books or magazines for pleasure.
The survey, done for Yahoo! and Carat, gave the
following figures:
Activity
Hours per week
Internet surfing
16.7
Watching TV
13.6
Radio
12
Talking on phone
7.7
Reading books/magazines
6
The survey said that the main reason cited among
respondents for spending so much time
online was the quality of
"control" the Internet affords users. Users can personalize and
manage their experience online more so than with any other form of media.
As for the type of website most in demand, teens
between the ages of 12 and 17 spend
an average of 26.6 minutes each day
with instant messaging (IM) applications,
24.4 minutes per day with game
sites and a whopping 41.5 minutes per day on sites
with some sort of
corporate presence, comScore Media Metrix determined at the end of 2002.
eMarketer stated that by the end of 2003, roughly
17 per cent of US Internet users
will be in nine to 17 age group and about
29 per cent in the 18 and 34 age group.
Born to Be Wired:
Understanding the First Wired Generation
36 page report (July 2003) http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/promo/btbw_2003/btbw_execsum.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
from the September 2002 issue of Better Homes & Gardens
magazine, page 250
When it comes to their daily does of media, boys and girls have slightly
different appetites,
reports the Kaiser
Family Foundation.
boys watch television an average 2 hours 56 minutes a
day; slightly more than girl's
average of 2 hours 36 minutes.
Between
the ages of 10 and 17, boys are more likely to watch TV daily than are
girls
(81 percent vs. 75 percent), reports Children
Now, a California group that tracks media usage.
boys are more likely to watch sports and cartoons,
while girls are more likely to
check out talk shows. They share a love for
music videos:
49 percent of kids say they watch these daily
boys spend just over a half an hour a day playing
video games, while girls play only
8 minutes a day. And on a typical day,
one out of every four boys will play an action
game, such as Doom or Duke
Nukem.
Girls spend more time than boys listening to CDs and
tapes (56 minutes per day vs. 41 minutes);
and listening to the radio (42
minutes vs. 36 minutes)
Source for this graphic: http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/growup.htm
Information presented
in the above exhibit was found in two sources:
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (2003).
Connected to the future: A report on children's Internet use. Retrieved April 7,
2003, from http://www.cpb.org/ed/resources/connected/.
Grunwald Associates. (2000). Children,
families, and the Internet. Burlingame, CA: Author.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Television
viewing:
Children
aged 2-5 average 25 hours per week watching TV. Source: AC Nielsen Co., 1990
Children
aged 6-11 average more than 22 hours per week watching TV. Source: AC Nielsen Co., 1990
Children
aged 12-17 average 23 hours per week watching TV. Source: AC Nielsen Co., 1990
30%
of middle-aged men (median age in the study was 39.5) watch TV 3 or more
hours
per day, while another 61% watch TV 1-2 hours per day. Source: 1989 study by Larry Tucker at
Brigham Young University
.
"By the time most Americans are 18 years old, they have spent more time in
front
of the television set than they have spent in school, and far more than
they have
spent talking with their teachers, their friends or even their
parents." Quote from Abandoned in the Wasteland:
Children, Television and the First Amendment,
by Newton Minnow, former Chairman
of the FCC, and Craig LaMay, 1995
"By
first grade, most children have spent the equivalent of three school years in
front of the TV set." Quote from Abandoned in the Wasteland:
Children, Television and the First Amendment, by
Newton Minnow, former Chairman
of the FCC, and Craig LaMay, 1995
.
62% of fourth graders say they spend more than three hours per day watching TV. Source: Educational Testing Service study,
1990
64%
of eighth graders report watching more than three hours of TV per day. Source: Educational Testing Service study,
1990
.
By the time today's child reaches age 70, he or she will have spent
approximately seven years watching TV. Source:
American Academy of Pediatrics study, 1990
Children,
Adolescents, and Television This American Academy of Pediatrics policy
statement explores children's TV viewing habits and the potential health hazards
of too much TV time.
Mediascope- raising
awareness about media and society
National Institute
on Media & The Family- helping families and educators maximize
the
benefits and minimize the harm of mass media on children through research,
education and advocacy
NEW STUDY FINDS KIDS SPEND EQUIVALENT OF
FULL WORK WEEK USING MEDIA
Many
Kids Have Multi-Media Bedrooms, TV on During Dinner, and No Rules
Time
Spent With Computers Lags Far Behind TV and Music
New York, NY - The typical American child spends an average of more than 38
hours a week - nearly five and a half hours a day (5:29) - consuming media
outside of school, according to a major national study released today by the
Kaiser Family Foundation. That amount is even higher - nearly six and
three-quarter hours a day (6:43) - for kids eight and older. The study - Kids
& Media @ The New Millennium - examined media use among a nationally
representative sample of more than 3,000 children ages 2-18, including more than
600 who completed detailed media use diaries. The study included children's use
of television, computers, video games, movies, music and print media.
"Watching TV, playing video games, listening to music and surfing the
Internet have become a full-time job for the typical American child," said
Drew Altman, Ph.D., president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "This
study really underscores the importance of paying attention to the messages and
the information kids are getting from the media, both good and bad."
The study also found that many parents are not exercising much control over
their children's media use: among kids eight and older, two-thirds
(65%) have a TV in their bedroom and say the TV is usually on during meals in
their home, and nearly that many (61%) say their parents have set no rules about
TV watching. Parents watch TV with their kids in this age range
just 5% of the time. Nearly one out of every four kids in this age
group (24%) spends more than five hours a day watching TV.
Even the youngest kids are dedicating a big chunk of their day to media use. According
to their parents, kids in the 2-7 year-old age range spend an average of three
and a half hours a day using media. Even among these younger kids,
one in three (32%) has a TV in their bedroom. More than a third (35%)
of parents of 2-7 year-olds say the TV is on in their homes "most of the
time" and almost half (47%) say it is usually on during meals. Parents
watch TV with their young kids just 19% of the time.
Computers. Nearly seven in ten kids (69%) have a computer at
home and nearly half (45%) have Internet access from home. Among kids
eight and older, one in five (21%) has a computer in their bedroom. But
despite this widespread access to computers, kids still spend a comparatively
small amount of time with computers, averaging less than half an hour a day
(:21) using a computer for fun, compared to two and three quarters hours a day
(2:46) watching TV. "Computers may be the wave of the future, but TV still
dominates kids' time and attention today," said Vicky Rideout, director of
the Foundation's Program on the Entertainment Media and Public Health.
There are significant disparities in computer use among children from different
economic circumstances: in a typical day, half (50%) of all kids who
live in or go to school in higher income communities use a computer, while only
29% of those from lower income areas do. Schools are helping
bridge that gap: students are equally likely to use a computer in
class whether they go to school in a low (32%) or a higher income (30%)
community.
Contrary to popular perception, the study did not find evidence of large numbers
of children spending hours a day playing computer games or surfing the Internet. Less
than one in ten kids (9%) spends more than an hour a day using a computer for
fun, including 3% who spend more than an hour online and 2% who spend more than
an hour playing computer games. By contrast, nearly two-thirds of
kids (64%) spend more than an hour a day -- and 17% spend more than five
hours a day -- watching TV.
"Heavy" media users. The study identified a subset
of children in the 8-18 year-old range who are classified as "heavy"
media users - those who spend more than ten and a half hours a day using media. About
one in six kids (16%) falls into this category.
Most kids in this age group report that they have lots of friends, are happy at
school, get along well with their parents, don't get into trouble a lot, and are
not often bored, sad or unhappy. On a "contentedness index"
summarizing self-reports on these issues, most children appear well-adjusted. However,
those children identified by the study as "heavy" media users score
lower on the index than those children who use less media. The study
cannot determine whether heavy use of media causes kids to be less content,
whether discontent contributes to children spending more time with media, or
whether some other factors cause both effects. However, even when
controlling for factors such as race, age, family composition and income of the
community in which the child attends school, indicators of discontent are
associated with high media use.
Other media. According to the study, music is a dominant force
in kids' lives. Young people spend an average of almost an hour and a
half a day (1:27) listening to CDs, tapes or the radio. "After
TV, music is the medium of choice for most kids, especially older teens,"
said Donald F. Roberts, Jr., Ph.D., professor of communication at Stanford
University and an author of the study.
While the study confirms that electronic media dominate young people's time, it
also indicates that reading for pleasure is still a staple in most kids' lives. More
than eight in 10 kids (82%) will read for fun each day, averaging nearly three
quarters of an hour (:44) a day (excluding time spent reading in school or for
homework). But kids still spend more than five times as much time in front of a
TV, computer or video game screen each day than they do reading (4:06 v. :44).
Methodology: The study is based on a nationally representative
sample of 3,155 children ages 2-18, including more than 2,000 written
questionnaires completed by children 8 and older, more than 1,000 in-home
interviews with parents of 2-7 year-olds, and more than 600 week-long media use
diaries maintained by parents (for 2-7 year olds) or kids (for 8-18 year-olds). The
surveys and diaries were completed between November 10, 1998 and April 20, 1999. The
study was designed by Kaiser Family Foundation staff in consultation with
Stanford University Professor Donald F. Roberts, Jr. and Harris Interactive,
Inc. (formerly Louis Harris & Associates). The data were
collected by Harris Interactive, and the results were analyzed by Foundation
staff and Professor Roberts. The margin of error for the combined
sample of children 2-18 is +/- 3%; for children 8 and older it is +/- 3%; and
for children 2-7 it is +/- 5%. The study e xamines children's
non-school use of television, videos, movies, video games, CDs and tapes, radio,
books, magazines, newspapers and computers. Children or parents
completed detailed questionnaires regarding the child's use of these media the
previous day.
The Kaiser Family Foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, is an
independent national health care philanthropy, and is not affiliated with Kaiser
Permanente or Kaiser Industries. This study is a project of the
Foundation's Program on the Entertainment Media & Public Health,
which was established to examine the impact of entertainment media on society,
and to work with the entertainment industry on important public health issues.
To order a copy of the full study (publication #1536), executive summary
(#1535), or appendices (#1537) on which this release is based, call the Kaiser
Family Foundation's publication request line at 800-656-4533, or review them
online at www.kff.org.
# # #
Kids
& Media @ the New Millennium:
A Kaiser Family Foundation Report
Key Data
Amount of time children spend using media each day, on average:1
All kids 2-18 5:29
2-7 year-olds 3:34
8 and older 6:43
Amount of time kids spend each day, on average:2
Watching TV
2:46
Listening to music 1:27
Reading for fun :44
Watching videos :39
Using a computer for fun :21
Playing video games :20
Online
:08
Percent of kids who spend more than an hour a day:
Watching TV
64%
Reading for pleasure 20%
Listening to CDs or tapes 19%
Listening to the radio 17%
Using a computer for fun 9%
Playing video games
8%
Online
3%
Playing computer games 2%
Amount of time kids spend each week, on average:3
Watching TV
19:19
Listening to music 10:04
Reading
5:15
Using a computer for fun 2:29
Playing video games 2:17
Percent of kids who have a TV in their bedroom:
All kids 2-18 53%
2-7 year-olds 32%
8 and older
65%
Percent of kids who use a computer in a day:
All kids 2-18 42%
2-7 year-olds 26%
8 and older
51%
Percent of kids who have a computer in the home:
All kids 2-18 69%
2-7 year-olds 62%
8 and older 73%
Lower income4
49%
Upper income 81%
Percent of kids who have a computer in their bedroom:
All kids 2-18 16%
2-7 year-olds 6%
8 and older 21%
Percent of school-aged children who use a computer in a typical day, by
income:4
In school:
Lower income 32%
Upper income 30%
Out of school:
Lower income 23%
Upper income 48%
Parental oversight:
Percent of kids…
With no rules about TV: 49%
In homes where TV is
usually on during meals: 58%
Percent of time parents watch TV with their kids:5
2-7 year-olds: 19%
8-18 year-olds: 5%
Time is presented in hours:minutes.
Times cannot be summed, due to use of more than one medium at a time.
Week-long averages are based on mean times with each medium, separating out
weekday and weekend reports. Times cannot be summed due use of more than one
medium at a time.
Income categories are based on the median income of the zip code in which the
child lives (for 2-7 year-olds) or goes to school (for 8-18 year-olds), and
represents the following ranges: "low income" is less than $25,000,
and "high income" is $40,000 or more.
Based on media-use diaries.
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