Multitasking Media Impacts TV's Dominance

Television gets more total consumer use than all other media -- but fragmentation of those audiences and multitasking make those results less clear. Average time use for TV was just over four-and-a-half hours a day -- 278 minutes, according to a recent study by eMarketer. This is up from 274 in 2011. Online consumer daily use is 173 minutes; in 2011, it was 167. Radio comes next, slightly down to 92 minutes in 2012 versus 94 minutes in 2011. Mobile use is perhaps the fastest-growth area: 82 minutes versus 54 minutes a year ago. On the flip side, print is now at 38 minutes, down from 55 minutes. All media use per day is now at 699 minutes -- just over 11-and-a-half hours a day. In 2011, it was at 678 minutes. But multitasking makes it less of an easy victory for TV.