• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 5, 2004

Video Games have emerged as the fourth most dominant medium, displacing print media and vying with other major electronic media in the lives of both young adult and teenage males, according to findings of a unique multimedia usage study scheduled to be released today. The findings, which indicate that men 18-34 devote 6 percent and teenage males devote 15 percent of the time they spend with media each day to playing video games, may help explain the corresponding drop in TV viewing that has manifested among young males this year.

"We knew it was high, but we were surprised to learn that it was this high," says Robert DeFelice, vice president-client service at Knowledge Networks/SRI, which conducted the research as part of its so-called MultiMedia Mentor study, a telephone-based survey that asks a nationally representative sample of Americans how much time they spend with each of the major media each day.

The study, which also measures time spent with TV, radio, online, newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages and cinema advertising, shows that video games have now surpassed both newspapers and magazines among the young male demos and are essentially at parity with print media consumption among all Americans age 12 to 64, the population base of the study (see table below).

Not surprisingly, video games are emerging as major force among teenage males and are begging to challenge the amount of time those teens spend with radio and the Internet.

While the study doesn't monitor actual media usage behavior, it shows that young males at least perceive video games are playing a more significant role in their media lives than many had previously believed. Importantly, the study measured only the amount of time consumers spend with video game console systems, not time spent with other forms of video games, including those played on personal computers and the Internet, or hand-held, wireless and cell phone-based gaming systems, which are also emerging as significant factors.

"The total likely is higher," acknowledges DeFelice. While Knowledge Networks has been conducted its multimedia usage studies for several years, it does not yet have trend data on video games, or Yellow Pages, which were added to the study in late 2003.

DeFelice says the findings are not necessarily mutually exclusive, noting that consumers may be utilizing video games simultaneously with other media, especially television.

"We see a very, very small diminution with television for instance. What we're seeing is that media means so much more these days and that people are findings ways of doing more of different kinds of things," he says.

Nonetheless, TV usage among young adult and teenage males have begun to take a pronounced dip this season, according to Nielsen data, and even Knowledge Networks research indicates there has been some impact from video games.

During evening hours (6PM to midnight), 5% of men 18 to 34 play videogames while watching little or no television, according to the study.

Shares Of Daily Time Spent With Media*

            Persons 12-64    Males
18-34    Males 12-17 
TV                    51%            42%            45%  
Radio                 26%            28%            17% 
Internet              14%            19%
16% 
Video Games            3%             6%            15% 
Newspapers             4%             3%             3% 
Magazines              3%             2%             3% 

Source: Knowledge Networks/SRI MultiMedia Mentor Fall 2003. *Percentage of time spent daily among the six media shown. Based on nationally representative telephone survey. The survey also measures daily use of Yellow Pages and cinema advertising, which are not reflected in the percentages above.