The challenge of attracting and retaining consumer attention is a matter of supply and demand. The sheer volume and diversity of content available to audiences is greater than ever before. But the time that people have or are willing to devote to consuming those various forms and formats of media and entertainment, including video, audio, gaming, print, social platforms, and live events, is finite. Over the past decade, the total number of hours each day that consumers watch, listen to, read, or otherwise interact with content has barely grown, increasing roughly 1 to 2 percent a year. At the same time, technological innovations in production and distribution, the rise of user- generated content, and the proliferation of premium content have created a dizzying array of choices. There are 50 times more amateur uploaders than professionals on Spotify, 25,000 times more hours of content produced last year on YouTube than on all traditional television networks and video streaming services, and every new television season and movie release competes for time on the same platforms that offer nearly every series and film that came before it. There isn’t only more content to consume but also more devices to consume it on—often simultaneously. An overwhelming majority of media consumers, across generations (including almost two-thirds of baby boomers), now routinely browse the internet or apps while watching TV. New content increasingly is created to drive and cater to shorter attention spans, with programming executives reportedly telling writers that they should assume viewers will be accessing two screens at once. Media multitasking is so prevalent, both in professional and personal time, that Americans now spend, on average, roughly 13 hours a day engaging with media. 2 Unsurprisingly, this explosion in content, platforms, and devices has fragmented consumers’ collective focus, making it only more difficult for companies to effectively monetize the public’s shifting engagement habits. Inflation-adjusted media revenue has remained relatively flat in recent years, as the growth in consumption across social media platforms, video streaming services, and digital audio hasn’t generated levels of consumer spending or profit that are comparable with cable television, legacy print publications, movie theaters, and physical media. Digital media tends to generate a smaller share of revenue and profit compared with its share of consumption (Exhibit 1). 2 E MARKETER database, January 2025. The distracted state of consumer attention 4 The ‘attention equation’: Winning the right battles for consumer attention