Jeff Pollack: Old Habits Die Hard

Jeff Pollack

In his most recent guest column on THE HUFFINGTON POST, POLLACK MEDIA GROUP CHAIRMAN/CEO of Global Media And Entertainment JEFF POLLACK takes a peak at "our electronic lives," based on the most recent edition of "The Infinite Dial" from ARBITRON and EDISON RESEARCH.

POLLACK writes, "Digging beyond the obvious growth in various technologies and platforms, the study reinforced that much of traditional media (except for newspapers) was holding its own in the face of ongoing disruptions. So here's the latest update on what we're liking, LOLing about and linking to.

* Old school electronic media, i.e. TV (over the air, cable, and satellite) and AM/FM radio, aren't losing audience (just some time spent) -- 98% of the population still watches TV each week, but it surprises some people to learn that AM/FM radio still attracts 93% of the 12+ population each week.

* 6 in 10 smartphone users would rather give up TV than their smartphone -- even with the proliferation of HD and 3D TV, on ever-bigger screens, the smartphone has become the essential device.

* It's official ... if you don't have a FACEBOOK account you're in the minority -- according to this study over 51% of Americans are on FACEBOOK.

* The time spent on both online radio and online video has been increasing rapidly in recent years, while time spent per user with online radio is triple the time spent per user with online video. However, video will surely overtake audio in the near future, based on the growth of live streaming from NETFLIX, as well as the recent proliferation of mobile TV streaming apps.

* The online radio audience doubles every year -- 57 million Americans listened to some form of online radio in the week leading up to the survey. That's 22% of the total U.S. population listening online. Even more significant is the fact that 10% of the population had listened to Pandora in the week before the survey. That means that roughly half the people who listen to any kind of online radio listen to PANDORA. That's FACEBOOK-like dominance."

What's POLLACK's conclusion regarding this data?

"The real takeaway from this survey is that it's clear that even as consumers enjoy better and faster access to more and more options, traditional media usage still dominates in many sectors. The fascination with new hardware may be making some consumers change their preferred sources for audio and visual stimulation, but for the majority of mainstream Americans, old habits die hard," he wrote.

Check out the full post here.

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