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Digital Set to Surpass TV in TimeSpent with US Media

Aug 1, 2013

Mobile helps propel digital time spentAverage time spent with digital media per day will surpass TV viewing time for

the first time this year, according to eMarketers latest estimate of media

consumption among US adults.

The average adult will spend over 5 hours per day online, on nonvoice mobile

activities or with other digital media this year, eMarketer estimates, compared to

4 hours and 31 minutes watching television. Daily TV time will actually be down

slightly this year, while digital media consumption will be up 15.8%.

The most significant growth area is on mobile. Adults will spend an average of 2

hours and 21 minutes per day on nonvoice mobile activities, including mobile

internet usage on phones and tabletslonger than they will spend online on

desktop and laptop computers, and nearly an hour more than they spent on

mobile last year (/Article.aspx?R=1010095).

This is eMarketers first time breaking out time spent on tablets and

smartphones. Its also eMarketers first time creating an overall time spent with

digital figure. Previously, online time (desktop, laptop) and mobile time (on

feature phones, smartphones and tablets) were kept separate.

eMarketers estimates of time spent with media include all time spent within

each medium, regardless of multitasking. Consumers who spend an hour

watching TV while multitasking on tablet devices, for example, would be

counted as spending an hour with TV and an additional hour on mobile. Such

multitasking helps to contribute to the increase in the overall time people spendwith media each day, which eMarketer expects to rise from 11 hours and 49

minutes in 2012 to 12 hours and 05 minutes this year.

Time spent with mobile has come to represent a little more than half of TVs

share of total media time, as well as nearly half of digital media time as a whole.

The bulk of mobile time is spent on smartphones, at 1 hour and 7 minutes per

day, but tablets are not far behind. Feature phones account for relatively little

time spent on nonvoice mobile activities, since few have robust mobile internet

capabilities.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1010095http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1010095

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To develop our time spent with media figures, eMarketer analyzed more than

400 datapoints collected from more than 40 research institutions. For example,

to forecast time spent on desktop and laptop computers, eMarketer compiled

and evaluated figures from audience measurement companies, industry

associations, academic institutions, major online media platforms and other

research firmsall of which were analyzed to account for discrepancies and

convergence in definitions, methodology and historical accuracy.

As a percentage of time spent with all media, eMarketers estimate of adults

average time with TV is roughly in line with other firms for this year. Temkin

Group (http://www.temkingroup.com) is at the low end of estimates among all

adult consumers, while MAGNAGLOBAL (http://www.magnaglobal.com) and GfK

(http://www.gfk.com) figures are more in line with eMarketers. Estimates of TV

time among internet users only are somewhat lower as a share of all media(with the exception of a USA Touchpoints datapoint), suggesting internet users

may devote somewhat less time to TV compared to online media.

Nielsen (http://www.nielsen.com) reported that in Q4 2012, US consumers spent

an average of 4 hours and 39 minutes per day watching live TV, and an

additional 25 minutes with DVR playback and 11 minutes with DVD playback.

That adds up to 5 hours and 15 minutes spent with TV under eMarketers

definitionsignificantly higher than our figure. However, Nielsen measures all

time a TV is turned on, not the amount of time viewers are actually engaging

with the medium.

Research firms differ dramatically in their estimates of how much time US adults

spend online on desktop and laptop computers, both in absolute terms and as

a percentage of total media time.

http://www.nielsen.com/http://www.gfk.com/http://www.magnaglobal.com/http://www.temkingroup.com/

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Time spent with mobile is also the subject of widespread disagreement.

Estimates for 2012 usage ranged from just under an hour, averaged across all

US adults, according to MAGNAGLOBAL (a figure that includes voice time,

which other firms do not) to 2 hours, among the same population.

Research firms agree more closely on time spent with tabletsat least when

measured among tablet users. eMarketer estimates tablet users spent nearly 2

hours per day with their devices in 2012; the Online Publishers Association

(OPA) (http://www.online-publishers.org) and Pew Research

(http://www.pew.org) had estimates within 10 minutes of that. Averaged across

the larger population of US adults, the figure goes down significantly, and

research firms that measured tablet usage among other groups that include

many consumers who do not own a tablet also reported lower figures.

http://www.pew.org/http://www.online-publishers.org/

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This article originally stated that US adults spent an average of 11 hours and

39 minutes with media each day in 2012, and would spend 11 hours and 52

minutes with media this year. The correct figures are 11 hours, 49 minutes and

12 hours, 5 minutes, respectively.

2013 eMarketer Inc. All rights res erved. www.emarketer.com