Radio & Television News Association

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Media Usage Down for First Time in Decade

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/7/2007 10:26:00 AM

Information and entertainment increasingly provided in shorter bits and bytes is apparently taking a bigger bite out of time spent with the media.

That's according to a new report from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which found that for the first time since 1997, there was a decline in time spent with various media (0.5%) from the year before. That's still 3.53 hours per year, per person on average.

The decline was attributed to a new appetite, characterized by the rise of YouTube, for shorter bursts of information.

For example, viewers normally watch TV for 30 minutes at a clip, while they watch video clips online for only few minutes at a time.

Attention, National Cable & Telecommunications Association: The study also found that consumers are shifting away from broadcast and newspapers to cable and video games, spending 6.3% less time with the former and 19.8% more with the latter.

Despite the half-percent drop in time spent with the media, money spent on it was up 6.2% to a record $885.2 billion. The report predicts that spending will grow another 6.4% in 2007 to something north of $941 billion.

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