Entertainment and Communication Top Broadband Activities

Broadband users spend half their free time online, with entertainment and communication the dominant activities.

Broadband users spend nearly half their spare time online on a typical weekday, according to a report released by Media Screen.

These users are online an average of five hours and 20 minutes between work and personal use on a typical workday. Personal Internet usage accounts for about one hour and 40 minutes, or 48 percent of their three daily hours of spare time.

“Fifty-eight percent of the sample included in the study said the amount of time spent online has increased over the last two years,” said Josh Crandall, managing director of Media-Screen.

Entertainment and communications are the top activities for broadband users, accounting for 54 percent of online discretionary time. Communication activities include e-mail, instant messenger, and posting information on social networking sites like YouTube and MySpace. News and information were previously the dominant content categories on the Internet.

“We definitely see the draw towards increased time online coming from entertainment. That can be attributed to broadband and more availability of content online,” said Crandall.

Among younger users, 48 percent said they learn about new forms of entertainment through user-generated content sites. Only 25 percent said they learn about new entertainment through television.

The finding identifies “a need for brands and advertisers to tap into the dialog around products and services, tap into the conversation and draw out a relationship with the consumer rather than presenting them with an intentional offer that pulls them out of the dialog occurring on that social network,” said Crandall.

The findings are part of an online survey of 1,444 broadband users aged 13 or older from the Global Market Insight panel fielded in July of 2006.

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