Web Nearly Caught Up With TV and Radio in Battle for Consumer's Time
- by September 22, 2000
Broadband in American homes has catapulted the Internet to a position on par with television and radio in terms of time spent with media, according to a new Arbitron and Coleman study entitled "The Broadband Revolution: How Superfast Internet Access Changes Media Habits in American Households."
The study, released today at the National Association of Broadcasters' Radio Show reveals that the average American spends 33% of his or her typical media day with television, followed by radio (28%) and the Internet (11%). In broadband homes, however, the Internet's share of media time surges to 21%, equivalent to television (24%) and radio (21%).
Compared to the average household, people with broadband access are much bigger consumers of all electronic media and entertainment, spending 22% more time with media than those without broadband. This is largely due to increased Internet usage, as people in broadband household spend 134 minutes per day online, 61% more than people in dial-up households.
"Broadband changes everything," said Warren Kurtzman, VP of Coleman. "This study provides clear evidence that we've only begun to see the Internet's true impact on media usage."
Pierre Bouvard, executive VP of Arbitron said "Half of Americans with broadband report they are making more online purchases now that they have broadband. The study reveals that Americans are very satisfied with broadband service."
Even more interesting from the perspective of traditional broadcasters, Americans say the use of Internet-only audio does not occur out of dissatisfaction with traditional over-the-air radio. Satisfaction levels with traditional radio remain high in broadband households.
The study shows that broadband households are twice as likely to try downloading and streaming content from the Internet, and over three to four times more likely to do so on a regular basis. For example, 49% of those in broadband homes have tried streaming audio, as compared to 20% for the U.S. population. Sixteen percent of broadband users report listening to streaming audio in the past week, as compared to four% on average.
The study also showed that people in broadband households are twice as likely to sample Internet-only audio channels (31%) as compared to those in dial-up households (18%).
A complete report detailing the study's findings is available from Arbitron (www.arbtiron.com) and Coleman's (www.colemanresearch.com) sites.
