Young audiences in the US are losing interest in television as they get older. New research claims that 80% of 8 to 14 year olds “love” television, with the number dropping to 60% for 12 to 14 year olds.
According to Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, the 8-14 year old audience get “distracted” by other activities when watching the television. The research shows that as they get older other activities take up their interest, such as reading, listening to music, or mostly surfing the internet, while watching television.
The study confirms other reports claiming that young people are “masters of multi-tasking”. Results from the latest Simultaneous Media Usage Survey (SIMM V), conducted at the beginning of the year, estimate television viewing to be down by 2.5% as a direct result of multi-tasking (see TV Viewing Down Due To Multi-Tasking).
The SIMM V findings revealed that two-thirds of TV viewers claim to regularly or occasionally read their mail at the same time, while 60% also go online. 55% read the newspaper while simultaneously watching television and 52% read magazines.
The Packaged Facts report says that the 8-14 year old age group commands a purchasing power of $40 billion and that if advertisers want to take advantage of this, they should start shifting money to the internet.
A survey conducted in May by BURST Media! shows that internet users are spending more time online than with any other media, with 35% of US respondents watching less television and nearly as many spending less time with magazines (see Internet Consumes Most Users Time).
Out of 2,600 web users, 60% claimed they spent more time on the internet today than a year ago, with 32.2% spending “much more time” and 28% “somewhat more time”. Meanwhile, one quarter of respondents say they are spending less time today listening to radio or reading newspapers compared to the same period in 2004.
BURST! reports that all age categories are spending more time online, with 62% of teens and 60% of 18-24s, claiming they were spending more time on the internet today than a year ago.
Meanwhile, a Carat Insight analysis of data, from Mediamark Research Inc and Multimedia Scan, revealed that US adults who go online most frequently watch more television and read more newspapers, compared to their non-internet-using counterparts (see Frequent Internet Users Consume More Multi-Media).
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