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Danes spend almost one third of the day consuming media: report

The average amount of time spent consuming media including television, radio, streaming and social media in Denmark is 7 hours and 16 minutes, an analysis has found.

Danes spend almost one third of the day consuming media: report
File photo: Åserud, Lise/Ritzau Scanpix

Although the total sounds just as likely to be the amount of sleep needed by the average person, it does in fact correspond to daily media consumption in Denmark, according to a report by national broadcaster DR’s media research department.

The broadcaster issues a report annually on media habits amongst consumers in Denmark.

Although the last year has not seen a significant change in the types of media people in Denmark tend to spend their time on, a number of interesting trends can be seen in the new report, according to Dennis Christensen, who heads the DR Medieforskning research unit.

“One of the largest trends we are seeing is that Facebook is going through a decline in usage, particularly amongst young Danes,” Christensen said.

“That is the first time ever that we’ve seen a decrease in the use of Facebook,” he added.

Although most people in the country still have a profile on the social media site – which has seen several controversies of misuse of data within the last year, including in Denmark – daily usage has dropped significantly during the last year.

In 2017, 81 percent of 12-24-year-olds logged on to Facebook daily. That figure decreased to 73 percent last year.

Meanwhile, the study also found that digital media are becoming an increasingly large part of everyday life.

“What we can see is that Danes are becoming more digital. That means they are spending more and more time on streaming services like Netflix and Spotify, and less on conventional television,” Christensen said.

“But it is very clear that most Danes spend time on both types of media,” he added.

Streaming of television series and films saw a slight increase in 2018, with 48 percent using such services at least once a week compared to 46 percent in 2017.

An average of 142 minutes daily is spent watching television, a drop of 8 minutes against the previous year.

“The trend we have seen for the last few years will continue.

“What will be interesting will be to see whether the pace of change will continue as it has in the last couple of years. Or whether 2019 will be the year in which change will really begin to gain pace,” Christensen said.

READ ALSO: For internationals, 'reliance on social media is sometimes greater because we are more disconnected'

BUSINESS

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat

Google announced Wednesday the reopening of its news service in Spain next year after the country amended a law that imposed fees on aggregators such as the US tech giant for using publishers’ content.

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat
Google argues its news site drives readers to Spanish newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue.Photo: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

The service closed in Spain in December 2014 after legislation passed requiring web platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay publishers to reproduce content from other websites, including links to their articles that describe a story’s content.

But on Tuesday the Spanish government approved a European Union copyright law that allows third-party online news platforms to negotiate directly with content providers regarding fees.

This means Google no longer has to pay a fee to Spain’s entire media industry and can instead negotiate fees with individual publishers.

Writing in a company blog post on Wednesday, Google Spain country manager Fuencisla Clemares welcomed the government move and announced that as a result “Google News will soon be available once again in Spain”.

“The new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content,” she added.

“Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.”

News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at the failure of Google particularly to pay them a cut of the millions it makes from ads displayed alongside news stories.

Google argues its news site drives readers to newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue and find new subscribers.

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