U.S. Consumers Spend Nearly 12 Hours a Day Interacting with Content

In 2013, for the first time, the average amount of time U.S. consumers spend with digital media each day will surpass the amount of time they spend watching TV, according to eMarketer.

The average adult will spend over five hours each day online, on non-voice mobile activities or with other digital media in 2013, eMarketer estimates, compared to four hours and 31 minutes watching television.

How one measures time spent with media does involve a judgment call, though. Where eMarketer measures both time spent with a tablet, smart phone or PC when the TV also is on, others have different methodologies.

Nielsen reported fourth quarter 2012 media consumption of four hours and 39 minutes per day watching live TV, and an additional 25 minutes with DVR playback and 11 minutes with DVD playback. That adds up to 5 hours and 15 minutes spent with TV.

That is because Nielsen measures all time a TV is turned on, not the amount of time viewers are actually engaging with the medium.

In other cases, researchers also have to make judgment calls about the amount of time people are using their PCs.

Estimates for 2012 mobile content consumption likewise involve some judgment calls. According to MAGNAGLOBAL, mobile content consumption is just under an hour each day to two hours, but also including any time spent talking on a mobile device.'

Still, whatever the methodology or magnitude of usage, most observers would simply agree that consumers now engage with content, and video content, on numerous screens.

U.S adults will spend an average of two hours and 21 minutes per day on non-voice mobile activities, including mobile Internet usage on phones and tablets. That is more time than they will spend on desktop and notebook computers, and nearly an hour more than they spent on mobile last year, according to eMarketer.

Also, note that multitasking now is a major driver of such “time spent” measurements. When assessing “time spent with media,” eMarketer and others now have to account for times when a user has a TV on, and is watching, but also interacting on a tablet, smart phone or other PC device.

Such multitasking arguably now is driving the overall time people spend with media each day, which eMarketer expects to rise from 11 hours and 39 minutes in 2012 to 11 hours and 52 minutes in 2013.

Time spent with mobile has come to represent a little more than half of TV’s share of total media time, as well as more than half of digital media time as a whole, eMarketer notes.

The bulk of mobile time is spent on smart phones, at one hour and 7 minutes per day. Users spend one hour and three minutes a day on their tablets.