CHILDREN’S MEDIA ODYSSEYS



CHildren’s Media Odysseys

The evolving media mix of Kids ages 6 to 17

Through the Lenses of Arbitron’s PPM Cross media Information & MindShare’s Online RESEARCH Panel

By

Roberta M. McConochie, Ph.D. Arbitron Inc.

Debbie Solomon, MindShare

Abstract

MindShare’s Online Research panel, MORe, and Arbitron’s PPM test panel in Philadelphia identify key points of relevance to media planners as well as media sellers for both short term and longer term business decisions. For example…

• Both media use and media-multi-tasking increase with age. These dual trends imply increasing dynamic flow of attentiveness to individual media, a challenge for vehicle programmers as well as for the buying side.

• Results confirm that content preferences change with age and also provide a first look at the different shapes of age-content relationships. These vary considerably for different contents. Content preferences also reflect complex interactions between age and gender.

• The data also underscore the importance of measuring the individual consumer, e.g. the child, rather than the media device. The prevalence of children’s away-from-home viewing strongly suggests its inclusion in media measurement. Results also point to the need for more passive approaches rather than active measurement, at least in part because of increasing media multi-tasking as children enter their tween and teen years.

Introduction

Background

Research on children’s uses of media is limited, particularly as a guide to media planning. Though key texts offer intelligence on children’s development of cognitive and emotional abilities or on marketing to children[1] none ties together child development with media as a practical guide to marketing. Moreover, available children’s research often features small samples and design procedures more appropriate for adults than young people.[2] Children under the age of 12 are not measured at all by the existing Radio Currency in the USA. The available TV data for younger media users via people meters, diaries, or other methods are often filtered by parents or older siblings.

Better research on children’s uses of media is critical for three reasons:

• Children’s media behavior provides a bellwether on media-use evolution for the entire population.

• The burgeoning children’s market consumes ever increasing adspend.

• Children are seen increasingly as key communications conduits to families.

The Industry needs more and better research on children’s use of media to effectively, program, plan and buy; and also to consider long range strategic paths implied by younger groups as they age. Children’s uses of media thus represent a vital thread through the labyrinth of the media mix.

Methods and Key Questions

The complementary MORe and PPM research programs shed light on the cross-media behavior of Children, including kids’ multi-tasking media consumption.

PPM methods have been described extensively in previous ARF and ESOMAR publications.[3] Most importantly for children’s measurement, participation is nearly passive. It focuses on the child, not on the media device. Children need only wear their meters. They do not write down anything, push any buttons, or attempt to identify the media entities they hear. Nor do they require assistance from a parental gatekeeper to capture their media exposures. Thus, the PPM approach is a potentially less biased method than conventional active research to capture children’s media use.

Results report information from the 2002-2003 Philadelphia PPM panel. During the PPM evaluation, the in-tab count of children 6 – 17 averaged just under 200. Though these are relatively small numbers, the PPM panel method features repeated measures of the same consumers over time. Thus these average daily estimates build upon hundreds of daily data points for each child’s results. All data are reported for the entire Philadelphia DMA for both Radio and Television. Most of the PPM results use the most recent PPM data, from Winter 2003. A few results use other surveys when specific age-sex breaks required more stability from larger repeated measures in-tab.

During the 2002-2003 PPM test panel in Philadelphia, virtually all local radio and TV stations were encoded and so were captured by PPM measurement. For cable, the vast majority of large cable-reach channels, 28 of them, were also encoded. However, several important children-targeted channels were not encoded, most notably Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and ABC Family. For perspective, these three networks represent about one quarter of children’s daytime viewing and about 15% for Teenagers. Thus the children’s ratings and time estimates in this report are likely to understate total viewing, representing roughly 80% of total. This potential understatement feeds into the results interpretation below.

All PPM estimates are reported as average quarter-hour data, despite the fact that PPM data are precise to the minute level. The AQH reporting facilitates comparisons with currency and has been the reporting standard during the testing phase. Also, given the focus of the present research on Children 6-17, most PPM estimates in this report focus on 6am to 10pm daily media-use data.

The MORe (MindShare On-line Research) panel is MindShare's proprietary on-line research tool administered by Lightspeed Research. The results in this paper come from the January 2003 wave of the MORe Nationwide Youth Panel Omnibus. This includes data from 397 8-12 year olds and 400 13-17 year olds.[4] The MORe results represent the online population of the USA, rather than the total population of children, although, at the time of this writing, 74% of homes with children have on-line access.[5]

Key research questions include:

• What is the media mix of Radio and Television for Children?

• How does the mix vary among the younger vs. older Children and Teens?

• How do the children describe their media mix? What do they report about their media multi-tasking?

• How does Internet use fit into the Radio-TV combinations?

Results

Expectations: Age and Gender Effects

Parents, siblings, and other mentors govern most children’s first exposures to media. As children mature, they increasingly control their own media choices and venues. They also increasingly develop content preferences and specific media-use behaviors, e.g. channel switching. Children’s media uses evolve as they develop physically, acquiring precise motor skills, e.g. required to operate a remote control and surf the web. Media uses also change as children acquire the cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence platforms to launch their personal tastes and the ability to search and screen in accord with their emerging identities and increasingly differentiated preferences.

We therefore expect to see age and gender effects on media behavior. The present results help describe and understand children’s evolving media behavior and consider the implications for short term and longer term planning.

TV Viewing Prevalent both at Home and Away; Older Kids Show More “Own Bedroom” Watching, according to MORe Results

MORe asks where kids watch television. Many of the responses are pervasive across younger and older children. For example both younger children (8-12) and older teens (13-17) report similarly high percents of TV viewing in the living room (77% for the younger children and 74% for teens). And similarly large proportions of older and younger children report TV viewing away from home: over half report watching TV out of home. Slightly over a third cite viewing in someone else’s home (37% for 8-12 years and 35% for teens); and over one fifth mention other out of home TV use (22% for 8-12 and 21% for teens).

In contrast to the pervasiveness of living room and out of home viewing over the age groups, teens and younger children differ in the extent of viewing in their own rooms. Only about half of this online panel’s Children 8 – 12 report watching in their own bedrooms in contrast to nearly two thirds of Teens 13-17 (54% for Children 8 – 12 vs. 67% for teens). No discernable gender effects occurred for the location of TV viewing.

Table 1

“Where do you watch TV?”

Percent by demographic

| |Living Room |Bedroom TV |Someone Else's Home |Other Out of Home |

|Kids 8-12 |77 |54 |37 |22 |

|Kids 13-17 |74 |67 |35 |21 |

* MORe, January 2003: In response to question, “Where do you watch TV?”Insert Figure 1 here –Kids’ TV Venues

Listening Alone & with Friends also Increases with Age

As expected, children’s experiences of radio also evolve over time to become less family/parent oriented and more individual or peer oriented. In contrast to the quarter of younger online children who report listening with a parent, only one in ten teens confess to this (26% for 8-12 vs. 10% for teens). While parents decrease as children’s radio mates, solitary listening and listening with friends increase.. For younger children, one in ten report listening alone or with friends (11% for each). In contrast, twice as many teens report these more mature radio behaviors, 25% listening alone and 21% listening with friends.

Table 2

“With whom do you listen to radio?”

Percent by demographic

| |Alone |With Parent |With Friends |

|Kids 8-12 |13 |26 |11 |

|Kids 13-17 |25 |10 |21 |

* MORe, January 2003: In response to question, “Who do you listen with sometimes/always?”

Younger Girls Report More Listening Alone than Boys

Though about the same proportions of girls and boys listen with their parents and friends, we see gender differences in solitary listening: for both younger children and for teens, more girls than boys listen on their own. Among the children 8 – 12, nearly twice as many girls listen alone (9% for boys vs. 17% for girls). Similarly, more teenage girls listen on their own than boys (18% for boys vs. 30% for girls).

Table 3

“Whom do you listen with sometime/always?”

Percent by demographic

| |Alone - Girls |Alone - Boys |

|Kids 8-12 |17 |9 |

|Kids 13-17 |30 |18 |

* MORe, January 2003: In response to question, “Who do you listen with sometimes/always?”

Online Teens Report More TV Multi-Tasking Than Younger Children; Small Gender Effects

The ability to follow two topics more or less simultaneously requires a fairly advanced level of cognitive and memory coordination. It is therefore not surprising that teens report more accompaniments to their TV viewing than younger children. Consistent with their online orientation, the majority of these children reported using the PC or the Web as a frequent accompaniment to TV viewing. A majority also mentioned magazine reading as a frequent side dish for TV. Over half of the younger children mentioned these (50% for PC/Web and 54% for magazines). In contrast and as expected, more teens mentioned these activities (67% for PC/Web and 66% for magazines). Given the attention demands of both PC use and magazine reading, results imply a flow of attentiveness from one medium to the other. This flow is obviously important both to the media programmers and to the buying side.

Two other activities also garnered expected mentions. Instant Messaging, no stranger to these online children, was mentioned by nearly a quarter of younger kids and over half of teens. Radio was mentioned as a TV accompaniment by a quarter of younger children and a third of teens.

The obvious conclusion to these multitasking results is that children, particularly these PC savvy kids, may not consistently “watch” with their eyes or ears on the TV program.

Table 4

“Other activities with TV viewing”

Percent by demographic

| |Radio Listening |Instant Messaging |PC or |Reading Magazine |

| | | |Web | |

|Kids 8-12 |21 |22 |50 |54 |

|Kids 13-17 |34 |56 |67 |66 |

* MORe, January 2003: When watch TV, what other activities sometimes/always do?

Gender effects were relatively small and inconsistent for TV multi-tasking. These small effects concentrated on instant messaging and PC use.

Boys showed slightly but consistently higher PC/Web use while watching TV than did girls at both age levels, 8 – 12 and 13-17. Conversely, girls reported slightly more Instant Messaging than boys for both age groups.

Radio Multi-Tasking Shows Age Effects, Small Gender Impact

As with television, the most frequently mentioned accompaniments to radio, according to these online children, are magazine reading and PC/Web use. Next in line is Instant messaging, particularly for teens, followed by TV viewing.

Age exerted a strong impact on the radio accompaniments. Over half of the younger children reported magazine reading and PC/Web use, in contrast to about three quarters of the teens. About one fourth of the younger children reported instant messaging or TV viewing as their TV accompaniment. Over half of the teens cited instant messaging and over a third cited TV viewing.

Table 5

“Other activities with radio listening”

Percent by demographic

| |TV |Instant Messaging |PC or |Reading Magazine |

| |Viewing | |Web | |

|Kids 8-12 |25 |28 |57 |62 |

|Kids 13-17 |38 |64 |79 |74 |

* MORe, January 2003: When hear radio, what other activities sometimes/always do?

As with TV multi-tasking, gender effects on radio accompaniments were slight. There was virtually no gender difference in the levels of PC/Web use with radio. As with TV, girls showed consistently somewhat higher levels of Instant Messaging across both age groups.

Instant Messaging: Older Girls May Rule

Both the TV and Radio multi-tasking results (Tables 4 – 5) replicate a user profile: many more teens than children 8 – 12 use this service and more girls than boys take part. These results have implications for marketers concerning the effectiveness of targeting via this real time communication vehicle.

PC/Web Multi-Tasking also Shows Age Impact, little Gender Effect

As with Radio and TV multi-tasking, teens pack in more simultaneous activities than younger children. Not surprisingly, audio streams are most mentioned as an accompaniment to PC/Web use. Audio tape/CD Listening and radio listening were mentioned by about half of younger children report these vs. about three quarters of teens. Television accompaniment comes in a close third. And magazine reading is mentioned by a smaller number of online children, possibly and arguably as an accompaniment to slow downloads.

Table 6

“Other activities with PC/Web use”

Percent by demographic

| |TV |Radio Listening |Tape/CD Listening |Reading Magazine |

| |Viewing | | | |

|Kids 8-12 |46 |52 |56 |7 |

|Kids 13-17 |56 |72 |80 |18 |

* MORe, January 2003: When use PC, what other activities sometimes/always?

MORe Results Provide the Context for PPM Radio & TV Results

Results from MindShare’s online research provide the context – of where and how children use radio and TV and what else they do while they attend to these media. We now look to Arbitron’s PPM results to see when and to what extent kids use Radio and Television and what contents they prefer.

PPM vis-à-vis Present Radio & TV Currency Measurement

As has been shown in previous ARF and ESOMAR presentations, the PPM Radio estimates for teenagers 12 – 17 and for adults generally resemble the quarter-hour data for Arbitron’s diary-currency measurement. However, the PPM radio information provides considerably more granularity of stations, episodes, and per-station time listening.[6] PPM data also contribute greater precision of start and stop times than the diary method is capable of achieving. In addition, PPM captures the Radio listening of Children 6 – 11, a group not included in diary-based currency surveys.

In Television, the PPM estimates generally exceed the present meter-diary currency [7] , in part because PPM tracks consumers wherever they go, in and out of home. The results attest to the considerable potential for out of home TV use for children. Over half of the children and teenagers in the MORe survey reported watching at friends’ homes or other locations away from home (Table 1).

Other limitations of current set-based, diary measurement have been noted above in the methods section. The authors believe that the PPM television data reported here may suffer less measurement bias than the present TV currency in Philadelphia, particularly for children and teens.

Age and Gender Effects Expected for Media Estimates

We expect that PPM media measures will show age effects, related to the cognitive, social and emotional development of children. Additionally, we expect to see gender impacts as children’s identities increasingly reflect sexual maturation and cultural expectations. Because of the vast range of media contents, however, the impact of age and gender and their related lifestyle variations may not produce simple monotonic increases or decreases in media-use levels.

Age Effects Varied: Radio Use Increases with Age; So Does Broadcast TV; Cable Use Appears to Drop with Age

As expected, there are age effects for total-day radio listening. For the broad age groups, increases in listening go hand in hand with increases in age. Younger children listen less than Teens 13 - 17; Teens listen less than Persons 18+. The daylong average Persons Using Radio (or PUR) rating for Children 8 –12 is 6 vs. 8 for Teens 13 – 17, vs. 14 for Persons 18+ for all Philadelphia stations.

For Television, PPM data show that adults watch more broadcast TV than children and teens. Overall broadcast ratings are similar for Children 8-12 (a 14 Persons Using TV or PUT rating) and Teens 13-17 (with 13 rating points). These contrast with much higher levels for Adults 18+ (with an average daily PUT of 20).

However results imply the opposite among the 20 plus top cable channels encoded by PPM. The youngest children 8 – 12 show the highest PUT levels for cable, 12 for their total day, vs. 10 for the teenagers and nine for Adults 18 and older. These age effects would probably be even more pronounced if the Cartoon Network, ABC Family, and Disney channels had been encoded during the evaluation.

Table 7

PUR/PUT by Outlet Type

Monday-Sunday 6AM-10PM

| |Radio PURs |Broadcast TV PUTs |Cable TV PUTs |

|Kids 8-12 |6 |14 |12 |

|Teens 13-17 |8 |13 |10 |

|Adults 18+ |14 |20 |9 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

The net age effect for total TV reflects the larger share of broadcast in the total television mix. As for broadcast television, total daylong TV ratings levels are similar for young children 8-12 (at 25) and Teens 13-17 (23) and higher for Persons 18+ (at 29).

We use the total TV results to assess the impact of discrete demographic breaks as well as gender effects.

Total TV and Radio Use Generally Increase over Discrete Age Groups: Teens 15-17 Exception for TV

Results for the more discrete age groups confirm and extend the data for the broad age breaks. For Radio, each incremental increase in age goes hand in hand with more radio listening. (Table 8). The age-range ratings span from a PUR of six for Children 6 – 8 to 14 for Persons 18+ with incremental increases along the way. The qualitative date from the MORe study supports these results as well. As children mature and spend more time on their own, in cars, with their friends, in their own rooms, their radio listening levels increase, according to both of these research programs.

Results for television are again more complex. Though the overall trend is for increases in TV viewing with age, Teens 15-17 do not fit into the trend. The authors speculate that increases in school work, the advent of automobile driving, and increasingly on-the-go lifestyles contribute to these reduced levels. The total PUT ratings, including both cable and broadcast, are lowest for Children 6 – 8 (a 22 PUT rating) and Teens 15 – 17(also with a 22 PUT level). (Note that the kids 6-8 PUT level would be somewhat higher if Cartoon Network had been included.) The children in the middle, between nine and 14 years show slightly higher levels at 25 and 26. The highest observed PUTs are for Adults 18+ at 29.

Table 8

PUR/PUT by Demographic

Monday-Sunday 6AM-10PM

| |Radio PURs |TV PUTs |

|Kids 6-8 |6 |22 |

|Kids 9-11 |6 |26 |

|Kids 12-14 |7 |26 |

|Teens 15-17 |9 |22 |

|Adults 18+ |14 |29 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Children Spend Less Time with Radio, Television than Adults

In general, the curves for average daily time spent with radio and TV (among those persons who used the medium on that day) resemble those for total-channel ratings: Kids spend less time with media than Adults 18+. For Radio, the discrete children’s groups spend between one and two hours a day with radio. Children 9-11 show the lowest time at 1:15. Teens 15-17 are the highest among the kids’ groups with 1:45. In contrast, Persons 18+ show on average three hours of daily radio use.

For television, the general trend across the age groups is for increases in time with increases in age. Again the notable exception is Teens 15-17. Among the children, the lowest time spent with TV occurs among the youngest children 6-8 at 3:45 daily hours. The next lowest group, Teens 15-17 shows 4 hours daily. In contrast, adults have 5 hours of exposure to TV for the daylong period of this investigation, 6am – 10pm

Gender Effects Not Discernable for Children; More Evident for Adults

There were no substantive gender differences between children’s and teens’ overall Radio or TV use levels. However, gender differences are more evident for adults for both media. For radio, both boys and girls 8 – 12 showed identical radio ratings (PURs of 6). Teens 13-17 were similar, 9 for girls and 8 for boys. But for adults, men showed higher radio listening levels than women (15 points for Men 18+ vs. 12 for Women).

Results are similar for television overall. Gender effects are slight for children and more obvious for adults 18+. In the case of television, though, Women 18+ show higher PUTs (30) than Men (26). It is possible that more discrete age groups will shed more light on gender effects. However, this examination will need to await PPM expansions to larger samples and more markets.

Age Effects Discernable on Hour-by-Hour Media Mix

The Portable People Meter captures both radio and television on a single measurement platform. This unified measurement thus produces media-mix curves over the course of weekdays and weekends. These graphically display the power of the individual medium to reach a target over the flow of the media day.

Though young children watch more broadcast TV than cable, at least among the 50+ encoded channels in Philadelphia, during their peak weekday viewing times, cable offers a strong second to broadcast for reaching this target (even without the presence of Cartoon Network).

For Teens 13 – 17, radio appears as a strong medium to reach this target in the early morning and also on weekends, when it is generally on par with broadcast TV through the day until the late afternoon. Though prime time evening TV is dominated by broadcast television for teens, cable is a strong second choice for a message vehicle.

In general, Persons 18+, show higher levels of broadcast TV and radio use than younger children or teens. Conversely, adults show less use of cable channels.

Pulling Power of Weekday Kids’ Block Dwindles with Age

PPM results show that other TV channels may, taken together, outstrip the magnetism of the larger part of the weekday 3pm-5pm kids’ block starting as early as nine years. For this analysis, the kids’ block includes UPN, Nickelodeon, and Warner Brothers/WB, but excludes Cartoon Network, Disney and ABC Family. Kids’ 6-8 show slightly higher ratings for the kids’ block (12) than for other TV channels (10). But ratings for this portion of the kids’ weekday block fall quickly with age increases. For example Kids 9-11 show a rating of 10 for the Kids’ Block vs. 16 for other TV channels. Tweens 12-14 also show a 10 for the Kids’ Block, but twice as much audience for other channels (with a 19 PUT rating).

Table 9

PUR/PUT by Channel Type

Monday-Friday 3PM-5PM

| |Nick/UPN/WB |Other TV Channels |

|Kids 6-8 |12 |10 |

|Kids 9-11 |10 |16 |

|Kids 12-14 |10 |19 |

|Teens 15-17 |5 |16 |

|Adults 18+ |2 |23 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®,

The Saturday morning kids’ block, with more diverse programming, has more sticking power for older kids relative to other broadcast channels. And of course the pull for younger children is enormous. The youngest children 6 – 8 show a 24 Saturday morning rating level for Nickelodeon, ABC, Fox and WB vs. a 7 for all other channels. The next two older kids’ demos also show high audience for kids’ programming. Both the 9-11 children and the young teens 12 – 14 show 18 ratings for these channels vs. 10 and 12 (respectively) for the other TV channels. Older teens 15 – 17, with much lower Sat morning overall viewing levels, favor other channels (an 11 rating) vs. the kids’ block (an 8 rating).

Table 10

PUR/PUT by Channel Type

Saturday Morning “Kid’s Block”

| |Nick/ABC/Fox/WB |Other TV Channels |

|Kids 6-8 |24 |7 |

|Kids 9-11 |18 |10 |

|Kids 12-14 |18 |12 |

|Teens 15-17 |8 |11 |

|Adults 18+ |7 |13 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®,

Young Children Show Gender Effects for Weekday afternoon viewing

For the younger children 8 – 12, weekday 3 – 5pm viewing pulls in more boys than girls. The boys 8 – 12 rating for the kids’ block (Nickelodeon, UPN, and WB) is 13 points vs. only 9 for the girls. Though there is not sufficient in-tab for a Saturday morning analysis, we suspect that similar results would show up, especially given the range of children’s programming. We also believe that similar results would occur once the Cartoon Network and Disney and ABC Family are added to the mix. This analysis would be permitted in the next PPM market.

Table 11

PUR/PUT by Channel Type

Monday-Friday 3PM-5PM

| |Male PUTs |Female PUTs |

|Kids 8-12 |13 |9 |

|Kids 13-17 |6 |6 |

|Adults 18+ |2 |2 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®,

Four Distinctive Profiles of Age Effects on Radio Format Listening

As anticipated, age has a powerful relationship to radio-format listening. The PPM data from Philadelphia show three patterns of relationships.

A “U” curve, observed for Adult Contemporary. The youngest children 6 – 8 probably listen to Adult Contemporary music, a top format in Philadelphia, with their parents. Older kids who have begun to take control of the dial and have their own preferences show only half the listening levels of the youngest. In ascending age order, results show PUR levels of 1.8 for kids 6-8, 0.9 for 9-11; 0.7 for 12-14; 1.0 for teens 15 – 17. The Adults 18+ show more than twice the levels of these 9+ kids, with a PUR of 2.4.

Table 12

Adult Contemorary

AQH Rating by Demographic

| |Kids |Kids |Kids 12-14 |Teens 15-17 |Adults 18+ |

| |6-8 |9-11 | | | |

|AQH Rating |1.8 |0.9 |0.7 |1.0 |2.4 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Inverted “U” Curve for CHR. “Younger-Teen” Appeal. PPM age effects for Contemporary Hit Radio show the Tweens 12-14 and Teens 15-17 with twice the listening levels as those for younger children and for Adults 18+. Both the tweens and Teens 15-17 show PURs in the 2.0 range for daylong listening. In contrast, the younger kids 6-8 and 9-11 and the Persons 18+ show levels in the 1.0-1.1 range.

Table 13

Contemporary Hit Radio

AQH Rating by Demographic

| |Kids |Kids |Kids 12-14 |Teens 15-17 |Adults 18+ |

| |6-8 |9-11 | | | |

|AQH Rating |1.0 |1.3 |2.0 |2.0 |1.2 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Inverted “V” for Urban Format: Older-Teen Preference. The Urban format in Philadelphia draws more Teens 15-17 than any other discrete kids’ demo; nor does it attract Persons 18+. Teens 15-17 produce a 2.3 daylong PUR level. The youngest children show less than half as much listening at 0.8. Older kids and tweens show 1.3 and 1.2. Total Adults yield 1.5. Obviously part of the performance of this format has to do with the urban environment and culture of large cities. These population centers and these teens are bellwethers and catalysts for social trends in the USA and abroad.

Table 14

Urban Format

AQH Rating by Demographic

| |Kids |Kids |Kids 12-14 |Teens 15-17 |Adults 18+ |

| |6-8 |9-11 | | | |

|AQH Rating |0.8 |1.3 |1.2 |2.3 |1.5 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Progressive Increases with Age. The AOR and related Classic Rock/Alternative Rock formats produce a simple positive association with age. In contrast to the U-curve for Adult Contemporary, AOR is heard by few children. The explanation will be found in the gender analysis below. The PUR levels for kids 6-8 and 9-11 are 0.6. From there, each successive increase in age goes hand in hand with more AOR exposure: for kids 12-14, a 1.2 PUR; for Teens 15-17, 1.9; for Adults 18+, 2.4

Table 15

AOR/Classic Rock/Alternative

AQH Rating by Demographic

| |Kids |Kids |Kids 12-14 |Teens 15-17 |Adults 18+ |

| |6-8 |9-11 | | | |

|AQH Rating |0.6 |0.6 |1.2 |1.9 |2.4 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Gender Effects on Radio Listening Depend on Format and Age

The impact of gender on format listening has complex relations to format, perhaps not surprising given the distinctive age effects among four popular formats. Because of limitations in sample size, we focus on the broad age groupings to assess gender effects.

AC: Gender Effects Slight for Kids. For Adult Contemporary, both children’s age groups produce similar gender PUR levels, just below or slightly over a 1.0. Differences show up for Persons 18+ with more women than men favoring this format: 3.1 PUR for Women vs. 2.1 for Men.

Table 16

Adult Contemporary

PUR Rating by Age/Gender

| |Male PURs |Female PURs |

|Kids 8-12 |0.9 |1.2 |

|Teens 13-17 |0.9 |0.8 |

|Adults 18+ |2.1 |3.1 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

CHR More Attractive to Women than Men of All Ages. CHR consistently draws more females than males – at all three age levels. For example, boys 8 – 12 show a 0.9 PUR rating vs. 1.4 for girls; Teenage men 13-17 have a 1.8 rating vs. 2.4 for Women.

Table 17

Contemporary Hit Radio

PUR Rating by Age/Gender

| |Male PURs |Female PURs |

|Kids 8-12 |0.9 |1.4 |

|Teens 13-17 |1.8 |2.4 |

|Adults 18+ |1.0 |1.3 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Urban Draws More Teenage and Adult Women than Men. Urban radio shows an interaction between age and gender. For the younger group 8-12, more boys then girls hear this format 1.3 for boys vs. 2.1 for girls. However for Teens 13-17 and Persons 18+, Urban draws more women listeners than men: 2.4 for Teen Women 13-17 vs. 2.1 for Men; 2.0 for Women 18+ vs. 1.6 for Men.

[8]

Table 18

Urban

PUR Rating by Age/Gender

| |Male PURs |Female PURs |

|Kids 8-12 |2.1 |1.3 |

|Teens 13-17 |2.1 |2.4 |

|Adults 18+ |1.6 |2.0 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

AOR Draws More Adult Men; Slightly More Teenage Women than Men. AOR also shows an interaction. For the younger kids 8-12, boys and girls show similar PUR levels 1.0 and 0.9. Teenage Women listen more than Men with 2.2 for the Women vs. 1.6 for Men. For Adults, Men listen at three times the rate of Women: 3.7 for Men 18+ vs. 1.4 for Women. These results help explain why young kids listen to more AC than AOR, per Table 12 vs. 15 above. More Women 18+ listen to AC, whereas more Men 18+ tune in to AOR. Since more women than men are likely to run the children’s car pools, it’s probably not surprising that young children’s listening reflects the tastes of their mothers rather than their fathers. This is an important consideration for media planners targeting young children.

Table 19

AOR

PUR Rating by Age/Gender

| |Male PURs |Female PURs |

|Kids 8-12 |0.9 |1.0 |

|Teens 13-17 |1.6 |2.2 |

|Adults 18+ |3.7 |1.4 |

PPM AQH Ratings, Encoded Media, Winter 2003, Philadelphia DMA®, Mon-Sun 6AM-10PM

Results Summary

Results of these two programs of research point to key points of relevance to media planners as well as media sellers.

1. Media use appears to evolve towards more personal consumption with age and less association with parents’ tastes and participation.

2. Both the extent of media use and the extent of media-multi-tasking increase with age according to the Philadelphia PPM data and MORe online results. These dual trends, reflecting both increasing cognitive skills and life-stage changes, appear also to imply increasing dynamic flow of attentiveness to individual media, a challenge for vehicle programmers as well as for the buying side.

3. Results confirm that content preferences change with age and also show a first look at the different shapes of age-content relationships. These vary considerably for e.g. radio formats. Content preferences also reflect complex interactions between age and gender.

Conclusions

The MORe and PPM results, though limited to online kids in the case of MORe, and Philadelphia panelists, in the case of PPM, make several noteworthy points for media sellers and buyers.

Despite the limitations, results show enormous differences in the way young children, teenagers, and adults consume media. The data also find differences among discrete age groups. Such results underscore the importance of measuring the individual consumer, the child, rather than the TV set. The prevalence of children’s away-from-home viewing also points to the need for personal and portable measurement rather than in-home, set-based surveys. Results also point to the need for more passive approaches rather than active approaches. Passive measurement is appropriate for the evidence of increasing multi-tasking as children enter their tween and teen years.

The developmental trends observed in this investigation suggest the following three future trends:

1. More media multi-tasking is likely, with its ensuing challenge to both the sellers and buyers of media because of the increasingly dynamic flow of attentiveness of media consumers. The authors suggest that fluid attentiveness to individual media will become the norm, rather than the exception, as today’s children age and as more media compete for ears and eyeballs.

2. The increasingly diverse demographic profile of US cultural centers, particularly large urban centers, will continue to shape the media experiences of children – long before adults awaken to the possibilities. The importance of children’s media experience as a bell whether for change mandates better and larger efforts to understand children’s information and entertainment choices.

3. Media measurement will evolve to accompany individual consumers as they navigate the increasingly complex, ubiquitous media landscape.

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[1] For example, Graue, M. E., Walsh, D., Studying Children in Context: Theories, Methods and

Ethics, Sage Publications, 1998;

McNeal, J. The Kids Market Myths and Realities, Paramount Market Publishing, 1999; Siegel, D., Coffey, T., Livingston, G., The Great Tween Buying Machine: Marketing to Today's Tweens, Paramount Market Publishing, 2001; Acuff, D. What Kids Buy and Why, The Free Press, 1997.

[2] Solomon, D. “Little Voices,” MindShare USA, 2001.

[3] For example, Patchen, B. and Webb, B. A Full Year of Audience Research with

PPM. ARF/ESOMAR, June 2003.

[4] These age definitions were chosen because of COPPA regulations which govern online

research procedures for children under 13 years of age.

[5] Nielsen Home Technology Monitor, First Quarter, 2003.

[6] E.g. R. McConochie, B. Goerlich, and S. Stinnett, 21st Century Measurement of 21st Century

Media: PPM’s Capture of Radio Dial Switching. ARF/ESOMAR, 6/2003.

[7] B. Patchen & B. Webb, op cit.

[8]

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