US Time Spent with Media 2018

US adults will spend 12 hours, 8 minutes per day with media in 2018, 1 minute more than in 2017. Although growth is slow, consumption patterns are shifting. Notably, daily consumption of digital media will overtake traditional media this year, reaching 6 hours, 19 minutes, or 52.1% of media time.

Digital video is the most time-consuming digital activity among adults, representing 1 hour, 26 minutes of daily media time. Its growth is driving additional time with digital media, accounting for 7 of the additional 16 minutes spent daily with digital in 2018. (Time spent among the adult population includes adults who do not conduct the activities. These adults are counted as 0 minutes toward the average.)

A summary of our current estimates on US time spent with media through 2020 can be found in this report’s accompanying spreadsheet.