Talker Research launches inaugural Media Consumption Trend Report

NY, OCT 2024 | Talker Research launches its inaugural Media Consumption Trend Report

The current landscape of media is more fragmented and personalized now than it has ever been before. Talker Research set out to explore how these trends are progressing and to better understand people’s behaviors and attitudes when it comes to consuming media.

The research findings from our survey of 2,000 nationally representative Americans reveal what media consumption looks like from a generational perspective, and what impact media has on our everyday lives, including our mental health. Read more in our Media Consumption Trend Report, which focuses on these five key areas:

Media consumption by the numbers: How much time and money do Americans spend consuming media?

How we consume media: Which medium do we prefer to use when it comes to media consumption?

Staying up-to-date: How do we get our news and current events?

Attention spans and the role our phones play: Has the modern world shrunk our attention span?

Media consumption and its impact on mental health: Getting “lost” in the content mines.

Talker Research Media Consumption Trend Report

Get the Media Consumption Trend Report here →

Among the key takeaways from our research:

Time

The average survey respondent spends six hours consuming some type of media every day.

Generation Z consumes 6.6 hours per day and are also the most likely generation to consume 15+ hours per day (11%).

The average respondent feels like they “lose” 3 days per month to content consumption.

Money

Only 14% of Gen Z Americans and 20% of millennials have paid for cable in the past year.

Netflix (49%) and Amazon Prime (43%) are the most popular streaming services Americans have paid for in the past year.

The average respondent spends about $67 per month on various media services.

Impact

Older respondents were more likely to report their mental health as Excellent and Good than younger generations.

Generation Z was most likely to agree that they consume too much media (66%).

52% of Gen Z respondents agree their mood is often negatively affected by social media.

Survey methodology

This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 nationally representative Americans was conducted by market research company Talker Research between July 24 and August 1, 2024, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

We are sourcing from a non-probability frame and the two main sources we use are:

Traditional online access panels — where respondents opt-in to take part in online market research for an incentive
Programmatic — where respondents are online and are given the option to take part in a survey to receive a virtual incentive usually related to the online activity they are engaging in

Those who did not fit the specified sample were terminated from the survey. As the survey is fielded, dynamic online sampling is used, adjusting targeting to achieve the quotas specified as part of the sampling plan.

Regardless of which sources a respondent came from, they were directed to an Online Survey, where the survey was conducted in English; a link to the questionnaire can be shared upon request. Respondents were awarded points for completing the survey. These points have a small cash-equivalent monetary value.

Cells are only reported on for analysis if they have a minimum of 80 respondents, and statistical significance is calculated at the 95% level. Data is not weighted, but quotas and other parameters are put in place to reach the desired sample.

Interviews are excluded from the final analysis if they failed quality-checking measures. This includes:

Speeders: Respondents who complete the survey in a time that is quicker than one-third of the median length of interview are disqualified as speeders
Open ends: All verbatim responses (full open-ended questions as well as other please specify options) are checked for inappropriate or irrelevant text
Bots: Captcha is enabled on surveys, which allows the research team to identify and disqualify bots
Duplicates: Survey software has “deduping” based on digital fingerprinting, which ensures nobody is allowed to take the survey more than once

It is worth noting that this survey was only available to individuals with internet access, and the results may not be generalizable to those without internet access.