Multi-Tasking Is the Name of the Leisure Game

Leisure time for many Americans essentially means media time, and lots of different kinds of media all at once, according to the results of an annual MTV Networks/Viacom Study of Media, Entertainment and Leisure Time, released Wednesday.

The study found that media and entertainment, everything from TV to music to magazines and newspapers, take up the largest chunk of leisure time--or about 4.7 hours out of seven hours of leisure per day--for the 4,070 survey respondents, whose ages range from age 4 to 70. Television, whose usage was up slightly from a year ago, and up in all age groups except adults older than 50, was by far the top media activity, followed by music. The lightest TV viewers, 12- to 24-year-olds, showed the highest increase in TV viewing, as more and more channels cater to their interests.

However, radio use among teens and young adults has fallen sharply, the study found, as the demographic groups embrace the Internet as a music source.

By multi-tasking, or doing two things at once, such as reading a magazine while watching TV, Americans can, in effect, add six hours to their day, according to the study. And, increasingly, adults are embracing multi-tasking as much as, or more than, kids, said Betsy Frank, MTV Networks’ executive vice president of research.

Indeed, when looking at Internet usage behavior, “the most important thing is tenure,” or how long a consumer has been using the medium, rather than age, said Patrick Keane, senior analyst at Jupiter Communications, at a panel convened to discuss the results.

This year, just over a third of respondents reported they have a computer in the same room as a TV set, up from 28% a year ago. Respondents said they use computers 20% of the time while they’re watching television and read magazines 34% of the time. Computer use doesn’t appear to cannibalize TV watching, however. “There is still no evidence that time spent on the computer is a direct one-for-one trade-off from time previously spent with the TV,” said Frank.

Instead, the results indicate what Frank called “behavioral convergence,” or “people acting as if their media were converged before they actually are.” She noted that the implications of such multi-tasking--namely, the amount of attention and focus users now give to any form of media--are being grappled with by most advertiser-supported businesses. “How do you still break through in an environment like this?” she asked, an environment that has brought about “a whole new dimension of clutter.”

Asked about what the decline in radio listening among young people meant for the music business, Tom Freston, chairman of MTV Networks, said the fact that they were turning to the Internet to get it was positive. “There’s a long line of people interested in music, interested in getting it in a new fashion,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for the music industry to uncover and find.”

Danny Goldberg, president of record company Sheridan Square Entertainment, said recorded music sales are up, and noted that the Internet was encouraging fans, or people who actually buy recorded music. As for the behavior of passive radio listeners, “we could care less,” he said.