Source: Nielsen
Despite the ever expanding media landscape, and virtually unlimited amount of content available to consumers, one type of content consumers are spending their time with has remained fairly consistent – ad-supported content, which is still the medium that consumers gravitate toward when it comes to their viewing habits.
According to Nielsen data, the share of time spent with ad-supported content on platforms (such as TV, radio, smartphones, video games and tablets) for adults in 2017 was 86%. This number shows a relatively stable share of this type of content, as the data for 2002, when TV and radio were dominant, shows that ad-supported content accounted for almost the same share – 89% of consumers’ time spent.
What is especially striking about these statistics is the fact that over time, consumer habits have changed dramatically with the introduction of new devices and types of media consumption, and yet engagement with ad-supported content has kept pace with the changes.
While 96% of U.S. homes have a television, other devices are slowly reaching ubiquity as well. Although the rate of penetration for PCs has slowed, these devices can still be found in 80% of U.S. TV homes. Meanwhile, tablet and smartphone penetration levels have quickly grown to 64% and 89%, respectively. Subscription video on demand (SVOD) services have surpassed penetration levels of their time-shifted brethren, the DVR. In regards to other newer platforms, about two-thirds of homes have an internet-enabled connected device capable of streaming content to a television set, which includes enabled smart TVs, multimedia devices and video game consoles.
Engagement with ad-supported content has remained strong despite such high adoption rates for so many devices, in part because consumers’ time with media hasn’t remained a finite resource. In fact, the amount of time consumers are allocating toward media is expanding, increasing by more than 25 hours between 2002 and 2017. Time spent with ad-supported content has grown and maintained a consistent ratio with overall time spent, Nielsen explains.
In second-quarter of 2007, the average amount of time U.S. adults spent with media was just over 50 hours per week. In second-quarter of 2017, that number increased to over 75 hours per week, nearly 65 hours of which are spent with ad-supported platforms. Since second-quarter 2012, the average amount of time spent with ad-supported TV, radio, and digital platforms has grown by over 15 hours—an increase of 30% to 2017. When looking as far back as second-quarter 2002, that same number exceeds 20 hours.
Although consumption of ad-supported media has varied over the past 15 years, it is still far more dominant and successful than perception may indicate. Today, ad-supported content remains a consumption stalwart as consumers’ media palates expand and consumption habits swell. While such revenue models have existed for some time, they seemingly have the versatility and adaptability to keep pace with an ultimately dynamic and fragmented landscape. This new age of media consumption allows marketers and advertisers to reach consumers in more ways than ever before and do so with ease.
