PEOPLE in Singapore are a multimedia-savvy crowd with an appetite for at least three different media, including newspapers and television.

About 66 per cent aged 15 and above turn to at least three kinds of media sources every day.

Only 9 per cent of the respondents rely on one media source. This was revealed in a survey called Nielsen Media Index, by market-research firm The Nielsen Company, which polled 4,717 Singapore respondents aged 15 and above, from July last year to June.

Ms Rebecca Tan, executive director for Nielsen Media Research, The Nielsen Company Singapore, said: "The findings show that traditional media remains the primary choice for the majority of Singapore's population."

Traditional media generally refers to newspapers, television and radio. It also revealed that 31 per cent consume three media types, while 25 per cent consume four.

Only 10 per cent of the population have the time for five media sources. Within the biggest group of respondents who consume three media sources, 32 per cent prefer the traditional-media trio.

Professor Hao Xiaoming, who teaches journalism at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, was not surprised when told that traditional media like newspapers and television still rule.

Prof Hao said: "There's no question about it. Newspaper- reading is addictive. Once you develop a habit for it, you will not stop unless you are deprived of access."

However, Prof Hao expressed concerns on whether people "could continue to spend the same amount of time with traditional media as they start using new media" because "there is a limit to how much time people can afford for information and entertainment in a day".

A number of new-media initiatives and products have been launched in the past year. Among them is Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) RazorTV, a free interactive web-TV service.

SPH's AsiaOne Networks, which includes AsiaOne, citizen- media website Stomp and online versions of SPH's stable of newspapers "emerged top with over 431,000 unique browsers weekly on average", said Ms Tan.

In January, Stomp's page views broke the 10.5-million mark, and AsiaOne's hit 10 million, an increase of 30 and 50 per cent, respectively, from last September.

cheryll@sph.com.sg

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