Nielsen Total Audience for Q1: Everyone is spending time with mobile devices

Nielsen’s Total Audience Report for the first quarter of 2017 placed its focus on generational distinctions, with profiles for baby boomers, millennials, and more.

For all age groups, daily radio listening stayed static, or only just edged higher. Baby boomers tune in the most with 2:03 in daily time spent listening for the period, followed by generation X at 2:00 while millennials posted 1:37 in daily listening. Generation Z showed 1:08 in daily time spent, although that data point only reflects the habits of ages 12-20 and the bracket includes any individual born on or before 2015.

Daily time spent with smartphones was highest among millennials (generation Z could not be tracked because of mobile privacy rules). Millennials reported 2:51 daily time spent with smartphone apps for Q1, up from 2:01 in the year-ago period. Generation X smartphone use jumped up from 1:40 to 2:36, and baby boomers leapt up from 1:20 to 2:29. Television, both live and time-shifted, took the biggest share in daily time spent for all age groups.

In broadening to monthly time spent, the radio trend was similar across the brackets. Generation Z and millennials had the lowest monthly time spent at 35:46 and 49:46, respectively. Generation X and baby boomers posted notably higher rates of 61:07 and 62:18.

The monthly time spent chart showed that mobile device use could outpace television. Millennials spent 77:44 on smartphone apps or web and 76:56 on tablet apps or web. Generation X posted 82:42 monthly time spent on smartphones and 81:38 on tablets. For baby boomers, smartphone apps and web secured 75:01 and tablet apps and web had 74:35. Mobile video usage was broken out separately, with markedly lower amounts of monthly time spent for each bracket compared with general app and web use.

Anna Washenko