New York – A study finds that U.S. consumers are increasingly shifting their attention away from traditional, advertising-supported media in favor of paid entertainment such as video games, the Internet and cable TV.
From 2001 to 2006, the average amount of time spent by the typical consumer on paid media has jumped 19.8 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media investment firm.
Over the same period, overall time spent with traditional, or ad-supported, media such as broadcast television, radio and newspapers declined 6.3 percent, the study found. The researchers said they expect the trend to continue over the next several years.
As of 2006, ad-supported media still had a 53.8 percent share of the total amount of time people spent with media, versus 46.2 percent on for-pay media, which include the Internet, cable and satellite TV, movies seen in theaters, books and recorded music.
At the same time, the study found that the total amount of time spent on all types of media declined slightly last year for the first time since 1997, dipping 0.5 percent to an annual total of 3,530 hours.
Leo Kivijarv, vice president of research at PQ Media, a media-research consulting firm that worked on the report, said the slight decline came after several years of growth amid rapid adoption of new kinds of hardware and services such as high-speed Internet connections, satellite TV and digital video recorders.
With many of those services now already purchased by those who want them, Kivijarv said time spent with media had reached a saturation point.
