Covering more than 6,000 consumers throughout the year, the survey found that 48 per cent of consumers accessed the internet in the last 24 hours, with men spending considerably more time online than women.
“Men tend to be much stronger internet users than women, and we found that they also have very different needs when they’re going online, said Craig Harvey, director, media research, Synovate Asia-Pacific. “Men use the internet for news and sport updates, whereas women generally go online for information searching.”
Magazine readership was also higher than exected said Harvey, with nearly 51 per cent picking up a magazine, with weeklies by far the magazine of choice for readers.
The study also found that paid dailies were holding their own against the free dailies, with 68 per cent reading the former and 28 per cent the latter. “The market is still very much willing to pay for news, despite the fact that there are free dailies in the market, so there is still room for both,” Harvey said.
“The free daily is read on the way to work, so it takes you to a different kind of advertiser than you would find in a paid daily.”
Overwhelmingly though, television remained the channel of choice among consumers, with almost 90 per cent watching TV every day.