Digital AND traditional media consumption on the up.
Wayne Aspland | 5 May 2010
Is traditional media bowing before the online juggernaut? Don’t you believe it.
Well, trounce me with a tablet and tell me I’m a technophobe.
In contrast with the armies of ‘gurus’ claiming an increasingly irrelevant traditional media is on its knees begging for sweet mercy from the digerati, out come the following two reports.
In February, The Nielsen Company’s Australian Internet and Technology Report 2009 – 2010 found that “the continued increase in time spent online amongst Internet users has, overall, not been at the expense of other media.”
Nielsen found that, while, time spent online grew by over an hour in 2009, consumption of traditional media (like TV, radio and newspapers) actually grew as well.
Go figure!
In fact, Nielsen’s results over several years suggest that, while Internet users tend to spend less (but still substantial) time consuming traditional media than non Internet users, the actual time they spend with traditional media has remained pretty well flat for quite a few years now.
In other words, while time spent online has risen massively, time spent offline hasn’t fallen in response.
Then in March, way over the other side of the world, KPMG UK reported a similar kind of trend.
Their Media and Entertainment Barometer for March found that while time spent online grew by 74 minutes in the six months to March, traditional media consumption ALSO grew by 33 minutes.
So what?
I can’t help thinking there’s a really simple, but really important, message in this data.
That traditional and digital together is far more powerful than digital alone.
Digital media is a massive part of our lives today and will play an even bigger role in the future.
But it won’t be alone, because people want choice. They want a paper in their hands and on their mobiles. They want TV in their lounge and on their iPad.
And the more choice people get, the more media they consume.
In short, the future is everywhere, not just online.
Maybe we should put an end to these phoney media wars and start realising we’re all in this together.
Because, clearly, that’s what consumers (and advertisers) want.
