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Research Reveals: US Consumer Media Usage Declines For The First Time In A Decade
For the first time since 1997 consumers spent less time with media in 2006 than they did the previous year, as media usage per person declined 0.5% to 3,530 hours, due to changing consumer behaviors and digital media efficiencies. This is according to data released by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a private equity firm specializing in the media, communications, information and education industries.
Meanwhile, total communications spending increased 6.8% to a record $885.2 billion, as industry growth exceeded that of nominal GDP in 2006 and in the 2001-2006 period, a trend that will continue over the next five years, according to the VSS Communications Industry Forecast 2007-2011. In addition, VSS projects that Internet advertising, including pure-play websites and digital extensions of traditional media, will replace newspapers as the largest ad medium in 2011, in what would be a watershed moment in communications history.
The drop in consumer media usage was driven by the continued migration of consumers to digital alternatives for news, information and entertainment, which require less time investment than their traditional media counterparts. For example, consumers typically watch broadcast or cable television at least 30 minutes per session while they spend as little as five to seven minutes viewing consumer-generated video clips online.
In addition to shifting their attention to alternative media, consumers are also migrating away from advertising-supported media, such as broadcast TV and newspapers, to consumer-supported platforms, such as cable TV and video games. Time spent with consumer-supported media grew 19.8 percent in 2006, while time spent with ad-supported media fell 6.3 percent. VSS expects consumer media usage to stabilize in 2007 and increase slightly through 2011, driven by increased time spent with cable TV, video games, out-of-home media and mobile content.
“We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors and the response by brand marketers and communications companies,” said James Rutherfurd, executive vice president and managing director at VSS. “We expect these shifts to continue over the next five years, as time and place shifting accelerate while consumers and businesses utilize more digital media alternatives, strengthening the new media pull model at the expense of the traditional media push model.”
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