A recent Roy Morgan poll investigated the weekday media consumption preferences of 15,220 Australians. Their findings highlight significant differences between which media we choose to eat our toast to compared with our preferences for dessert.

The results found the favourite in the morning was radio (preferred by 27.9 per cent), ahead of watching TV (21.9 per cent), using the Internet (24.7 per cent) and then reading a newspaper (16.1 per cent).

Read More: Here’s what the Illawarra is really listening to on radio

After dinner it was the small screen which more than half of respondents preferred (58.2 per cent) followed by the Internet (38.5 per cent), reading a book (21 per cent) then playing electronic games (18.1 per cent). Radio was preferred after dinner by just 3.6 per cent of respondents.

“A lot of people are commuting [in the morning]. They are turning on their radios, they’re very much into their local content,” said Associate Professor Shahriar Akter from the University of Wollongong’s Sydney Business School.

“But after dinner it’s a different ball-game because now we have many other channels especially the rise of Internet - because we can target consumers precisely.”

Read More: Corrimal comic night started for ‘selfish’ reasons but now soaring

Dr Akter said advertisers – which generate a large portion of revenue for media companies – were choosing online mediums first before more traditional forms because of the ability to target their ads to specific consumers. He said this will see online media eventually dominate consumption.

He explained every time someone uses an Internet based application – they ‘like’ something, write a post, search in Google – they leave a “footprint” which can be tracked by advertisers.

“I think by the next five years there will be a tremendous rise of online based media channels … because every mobile phone is a super computer in their pockets,” he said.

“Every time we log into the Internet … we leave our footprint and that leaves a pattern. So these online channels are smart enough to identify that pattern, these advertisers match that pattern and post relevant content in our news feed.”

Overall, the Roy Morgan data revealed using the internet and social media was by far a preferred pastime at the breakfast table over traditional forms of media for anyone born after 1976. While the younger the audience the less likely they were to listen to breakfast radio.

Meantime overall media consumption was higher after dinner compared to breakfast time with 88 per cent of the sample consuming media in the evening compared to 75 per cent in the morning.

Read More: Gerrigong Surf Music Festival won’t run alongside Werri Slash

Decreasing preference across generations for:

Increasing preference across generations for:

Source: Roy Morgan