Does heavy media consumption negatively affect other media?

If a consumer is a heavy user with one media platform, does that mean that they will consume less from another? Not necessarily, according to a study from Edison Research and Arbitron.

The Center for Media Research recently released results from a study that tracked media use consumption. The three top reaching media platforms are radio, online and TV, and the study focused on its heavy user habits. On average, persons 12+ consume 3:33 hours of television a day, 2:38 hours of the internet, and 2:04 hours of radio.

Results reflected that heavy online users spent about seven hours per day on the internet. By contrast, these heavy users consumed the average amount of TV at 3:35 hours and radio at 2:07 hours. Meaning, the steep skew towards online media consumption did not directly affect other media habits.

The trend continued with heavy TV users. This group averaged about 8:16 hours a day watching TV compared to 2:52 hours being online, and 2:12 hours listening to radio. All media was above the national averages.

Lastly, the heavy radio users spent about 6:23 hours listening, 3:31 hours watching TV, and 3:00 being online.

In conclusion, the study mentioned that the average time spent will all three media is 8:15 hours. This is up from the 7:03 hours average ten years ago. That being said, it leads one to believe that there is some media usage overlap to account for the increased consumption.