Television and the Internet

Abstract

The article considers the consumption of television and the Internet in Russia. The concepts of relative constancy and the theory of utility and demand of the media are the theoretical basis of the analysis. The empirical basis is drawn from the results of a study of communicative behavior of Russia's urban population. The article proposes a typology of the consumption of television and the Internet in terms of the duration of media consumption, and discusses the factors that determine the characteristics of the current state of affairs and prospects for the consumption of television and the Internet in the future.

Notes

1. To obtain data on the number of hours spent on the consumption of certain media, the features of the scale were reconfigured: less than 1 hour = 0.5 hours; 1 to 2 hours = 1.5 hours; 2 to 3 hours = 2.5 hours; 3 to 4 hours = 3.5 hours; 4 to 5 hours = 4.5 hours; more than 5 hours = 6 hours; “I do not watch (do not use)” = 0 hours. The number of hours in an average day of the week was calculated using the equation:

$(5\times number \text{of hours per} \text{weekday}+2\times number \text{of hours per weekend} \text{day})/7.$

Furthermore, a separate estimation of the number of days was performed for television and Internet consumption per week, in which the respondent refers to specific media data. Reconfiguration was carried out as follows: every day = 7 days; almost every day = 5 days; 2 to 3 times a week = 2.5 days; 1 time per week = 1 day; 2 to 3 times per month = 0.625 days; 1 time per month or less = 0.25 days; “I do not watch (do not use)” = 0 days. Then a multiplication was performed of the variables obtained in the above steps—separately for television and the Internet.