Americans are watching more, surfing more, texting more and consuming media more!

Americans continue to consume more and more media. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.   Due to a slow economy, ubiquitous broadband, widespread Wi-Fi access, increased multi-tasking and the proliferation of new devices and technology, consumers are living a lifestyle of almost continuous media consumption. In the past 18 months we watched two more hours of television per week, sent and received half a trillion more text messages and spent 1.3 more hours on the internet.  “We’re finding a way to do more of it, watch more of it and take more of it with us”, stated Patricia McDonough, VP-analysis, Nielsen Company.

Beth Snyder Bulik reported in Ad Age some  of the latest figures for U.S media consumption.

Television

• 116 million Americans have at least one television
• 55% of households have at least 3 televisions
• There are more televisions than people in the US
• Americans spend an average of 35 hours and 34 minutes per week watching traditional TV
• Another two hours is spent each week watching time-shifted TV, such as DVR
• We spend an average of 20 minutes per week watching videos on the internet
• TV watching is shared with social networking  (21%), playing video games (16%), purchasing products online (15%), participating by phone or internet with what’s happening on TV (7%) and tweeting (4%).

Internet

• On an average day, 78% of Americans with internet access go online
• 62% send /receive email
• 49% use a search engine to find information
• 43% get news
• 38% go online for fun
• 38% use social media
• 34% check the weather
• 26% do banking
• 23% watch video

Newspapers

• Only 31% of those surveyed read a newspaper on a given day
• 65 and older – 62%
• 50-64 – 44%
• 40-49 – 39%
• 18-24 – 20%

E-Readers and iPads

• 3.7 million e-readers sold last year
• 10.3 million predicted to be sold this year
• 15.5 million predicted sold next year
• 30 million predicted sold by 2015
• 10 million American’s either already own an iPad  (2.5 million) or intend to buy one (7.4 million)

Mobile Phones

• In 2009 there were 286 million wireless subscribers
• 72% of consumers now text
• There are 153 billion texts sent each month
• Teens send and receive an average of 50 texts per day – adults an average of 10
• 42% use their cell phones to access the internet
• 30% do mobile search
• 27% download apps
• 26% use it for buying products
• 15% use their cell phone to purchase products

Social Media

• Linkedin has 75 million members
• Twitter has 100 million members
• Facebook has 500 million members
• 40% of Americans maintain a social-networking profile
• 86% of adults 18-24 use social media
• 47% of boomers use social media
• 26% of adults over 65 use social media

It is clear that Americans consume an enormous amount of media.  And it continues to increase.  These figures vividly show the power and influence of the media.  They are tools, when used wisely, that can deliver our messages to consumers.