PC Taking Time From TV

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ÊÊÊ PC Taking Time From TV - Forrester Survey

****PC Taking Time From TV - Forrester Survey 10/16/96 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1996 OCT 16 (NB) -- By Grant Buckler. As Americans spend more time with their personal computers, they have to take the time from somewhere, and the largest number are taking it from the time they used to spend in front of the television. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed by Forrester Research Inc. recently said they make time for PC use by spending less time watching TV.

In the new study, entitled "PC Time and Money," Forrester estimates that, by 2000, this trend will reduce the average American's TV- watching time by 12 hours a year. However, senior analyst Bill Bass told Newsbytes, this won't make a huge dent in total television viewing, because "you're looking at something on the order of almost 1,000 hours a year of network television viewing."

Bass also noted that people with lower socio-economic status watch the most television, while those of higher socio-economic status are most likely to have personal computers. Thus, heavy PC users could spend a lot less time watching TV without having a dramatic impact on over-all viewership. Those of higher socio-economic status spend more time reading, though, so even though fewer than 20 percent of those surveyed said they are taking time away from reading to spend with their computers, Bass believes PC use could have a noticeable impact on newspaper and magazine readership over the next few years.

Forrester believes newspapers and general-interest magazines will suffer as a result of increasing PC usage, while more specialized magazines will feel the pinch much less.

The fact that PC users tend to be more affluent and better educated also means that TV's loss of viewership will come mainly in that category, which happens to be one of the most desirable groups for advertisers to reach. That will be a problem for the television industry, Forrester forecast.

For the most part, Bass said, TV-watchers are not giving up their favorite shows to spend time with their PCs. It is the aimless channel-surfing that is being cut back as people surf the Web -- or do other things on a PC -- instead.

The growing popularity of the Internet has something to do with the shift, but it is not the whole story. Bass said that among those Forrester surveyed, those with online access use it only about a quarter of the time they spend in front of their PCs.

After television, the activity the largest number of survey respondents said they are curtailing to make time for PC use was "eating and sleeping," Bass said. However, this came well behind TV with 24 percent of respondents mentioning it.

Those who want to switch off their televisions and visit Forrester Research's World Wide Web site can find it at http://www.forrester.com .

(19961016/Press Contact: Susan Somlyody, Forrester Research, 617-496-7090, Internet e-mail press@forrester.com)

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