Norwegians spend less time reading

The time Norwegians spend reading printed media has dropped 21 per cent over the course of seven years. While Norwegians used an average of 70 minutes in 1991, they spent only 55 minutes last year. The decline has occurred among both men and women and in all age groups.

Use of printed media from 1997 to 1998 did not change much, however. Newspapers are still the most read form of printed media, with a daily readership rate of 81 per cent including Sundays. On normal weekdays readership is 85 per cent. However, if the 1998 figures are compared with 1991 figures, we see that the average time spent on reading newspapers has fallen from 39 to 34 minutes.

Meanwhile, there are few indications that the use of electronic media equipment is replacing reading. Even though a steadily growing number of people have access to a home computer with a CD-ROM player and Internet subscription, the time Norwegians spend on a home computer has not increased to any significant degree.

Stable television viewing and radio listening
In 1998, Norwegians used radio and television about as much as they did the year before. The percentage of daily television viewers in 1998 was 83 per cent, and every Norwegian watched television an average of 119 minutes. Television viewing has increased only slightly since 1991, and so it has remained fairly stable in the 1990s. The percentage listening to radio every day was 59 per cent in 1998, with 83 minutes being the average time spent on this medium. In contrast to television viewing, radio listening has declined compared with the early 1990s.

Access to more television channels has climbed steadily in recent years, and 94 per cent could watch more channels than the state broadcaster, NRK, on their television screens in 1998. The percentage than can receive transmissions distributed via satellite has now reached 59 per cent. This is mainly attributed to an increase in the number of viewers with private satellite dishes. Thirty-nine per cent of households in more scarcely populated areas now have satellite antennas.

Unchanged ratio between NRK 1 and TV2
The fact that a steadily growing number of people can receive more channels than NRK has had an effect on which channels they watch. In 1998 other TV channels combined clearly had more daily viewers than NRK. Nor did NRK's other channel, NRK TO, significantly boost the state broadcasting system's competitiveness with the commercial channels. With its audience share of 50%, the commercial Norwegian channel TV2 is only three per cent lower than NRK 1. The ratio is about the same as in 1997.

New Statistics
Norwegian media barometer, 1998.
The statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and in the series Statistical Analyses no. 31. For more information contact: Odd.Vaage@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 46 69.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 13-14, 1999