Young Consumers Multitask at the Expense of Radio

MARCH 1, 2007
Internet users under 25 have multitasking in their DNA, but they may be tuning out radio.
Internet, cellphone and MP3 player usage is cutting into radio time among 15-to-24-year-olds, according to a study byBridge Ratings.
The study covered multitasking during the second half of 2006and found that Internet use is generally increasing at the expense ofradio for 15-to-24-year-olds.

The group was not homogeneous in its responses. For 33% of15-to-24-year-olds, radio consumption decreased to accommodate moreInternet use. For 10%, radio consumption actually went up, at theexpense other media. The overall trend for radio, though, was down.

Although online video viewing has not cut into TV time for thegeneral population, nearly a quarter of the 15-to-24-year-olds surveyedby Bridge watched less conventional TV, while 22% said that they spentmore time watching video on the Internet on such sites as YouTube,Yahoo! and MySpace, or streamed replays of prime time shows on TVnetwork Web sites.
The study also found that young people are spending most oftheir total media time online (23%), more than watching television(22%), listening to the radio (16%) and listening to their MP3 players(19%).
In 2004, theKaiser Family Foundationmade one of the first comprehensive attempts to study the multitaskinghabits of children and teens as part of its "Generation M" media study.By asking study participants to keep detailed diaries of theiractivities, it found that children spent an average of 25% of theirmedia time multitasking.
So, while they were using some form of media for six hours and19 minutes of their day, their actual media exposure, including thetime spent with more than one medium at a time, was 8.5 hours.

eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson cautions thatmarketers who are targeting adults cannot count on getting theirundivided attention either.
"Because of the constant presence of computers in theirlives," says Ms. Williamson, "teens may spend more of their media timemultitasking than adults do. But multitasking extends across agegroups."