Media Consumption and Leisure in Poland in the 1990s

Some Quantitative Aspects of Consumer Behaviour

by Bohdan Jung, Warsaw School of Economics, Poland

I. Leisure and the media in time use studies

This study starts with the analysis of leisure time as a temporal context for media consumption in Poland in the 1990s. It may come as a surprise to those observing the changes which took place in the country after 1989, especially changes in the work ethos and the increased productivity of labour among those gainfully employed and, on the other hand, the growth in the number of the unemployed, that the amount of leisure time available to the average Pole continued to grow, as depicted by data from the successive time budget surveys. This was happening at the time when data from time use studies in a number of North American and EU countries have shown that after decades of gTowth in the amount of leisure time available, the time squeeze and economic restructuring of the 1980s and 1990s have seen the reversal of this historical process.

From 1976 to 1996 the total daily amount of time available for leisure per person increased by 46 minutest This was taking place at the expense of time spent on work, which was down by as much as 1 hr 43 minutes. After a steady increase during the economic, political and social crisis in Poland in the 1980s (rationing of food, queues for everyday products, mass shortages etc.), the time devoted to household obligations also decreased by nearly half an hour between 1984 and 1996, but more time came to be spent on education, travel to all activities and physiological obligations (mainly for sleep). The above data is true for the so called average time or time per person taking part in the time budget study. However, the picture changes when the same phenomenon is studied from the perspective of time per participant and percentages of those participating. While leisure time per participant in each of the periods between Polish

time budget surveys (i.e. 1976,1984 nd 1996) grew by 17 minutes and the percentage of those having leisure increased from 93 in 1976 to nearly 98 in 1996, the percentage of those in work fell from 66.2 in 1976 to 43.5 in 1996. Part of this very significant drop was explained by the aging of the Polish society and the increasing share of the retired and of the pensioners in the Polish population. However, it must be noted that over half of those not working were unemployed. Whereas at the end of the 1980s the country had no unemployment, by the end of the next decade the rate of unemployment increased to 13-15%. In the early 1990s unemployment was initially restricted to traditional industrial sectors in decline and manual jobs requiring low skills, but by late 1990s it was spreading to new, hitherto untouched, socioprofessional groups, including young graduates of universities. For those 'gainfully employed', their work time was also reduced, albeit in a less spectacular way, decreasing from 7 hrs 10 min in 1976 to 6:55 in 1996 despite that there was no change in duration of the work week between 1984 and 1996. Between 1976 and 1996 leisure (free, discretionary) time per participant grew by 34 minutes for both sexes. It should be noted that between the last two time budget surveys, however, women's leisure grew by 24 minutes, while that of men - by 9 minutes. In terms of the percentage of the

Table 1: Changes in the use of time in Poland 1976-96 Time per participant Year Work growth/decrease growth/decrease Free time (leisure) growth/decrease growth/decrease 1996 1984-96 1976-96 1996 1984-96 1976-96 Total 06:55 -00:17 -00:15 04:59 00:17 00:34 Men 07:40 -00:17 -00:28 05:31 00:09 00:34 Women 06:00 -00:21 -00:12 04:33 00:24 00:34

% participating
Total 43.5 -10.8 -22.7 97.7 Men 53.1 -11.6 -22.8 97.7 Women

Average t i m e Total 03:01 -00:54 -01:43 04:52 00:22 00:46 Men 04:04 -01:05 -02:06 05:24 00:10 00:39 Women 02:08 -00:47 -01:30 04:26 00:32 00:49
o o3

5.6
-10.4 -23.1 97.6

2.1 4.6

0.2 1.6

3.6 6.9

Source: own calculations based on data from Time use survey l996,GUS,Warszawa 1998

82

J M M - V o l . 3 - No. II - 2001

population having free time women have caught up with men. While at the outset of the period one in ten women professed to having no time for leisure (vs. one in twenty for men) by 1996 they enjoyed the same participation rates. From the point of view of media consumption this may be, together with the decrease in the average time spent on work, one of the most significant developments in Polish leisure of the 1990s. The share of the time spent daily on watching television increased from 6.1 to 9.9%, which suggests that the entire grovrth in Polish leisure time was consumed by this medium. Closer look at the data from successive time use surveys shows that this was indeed the case. The share of television in the whole leisure time progressed steadily from 36% in 1976 through 40% in 1984 to nearly 49% in 1996. This was taking place at the expense of nearly all other forms of leisure with the exception of religious practice, the increase in which was a very atypical and unexpected development of the 1990sl If we take into account the full range of leisure activities analyzed in 1996, the predominance of all mass media was pronounced than in the previous studies, with these media taking up to 60% of all leisure time. The second most engaging form of leisure was socializing and entertainment (especially meeting with family and relatives) took up roughly only half of the amount of time spent on watching television (25% of the leisure time). Sports and recreation took on the average 8,8% of this time while personal hobbies, followed by civic and religious activities - 6.4 % (of which 6.1% - religious) and games only 2.4%. The consumption of media was by far the most time consuming element of Polish leisure and could be considered as its 'core' element. In terms of its mass reach, TV and video watching engaged nearly 90% of the Polish population (with slightly higher participation rates for men), who de-

voted to this activity between 2:23 (women) to 2:58 (men) hrs of its daily time out of 2:46 to 3:22 hrs for all mass media. There was no leisure activity comparable to TV and video watching in terms of its nearly universal reach.

2. Old and new factors of stratification in nnedia consumption

While the market reforms of 1989 were successful in establishing a fast-growing entrepreneurial capitalism, they were also effectively producing new types of inequality manifested by unemployment, income polarization and social marginalisation at a pace and on a scale unprecedented in the country's post-war era. Some of elements of the stratification in media consumption reflect these changes, others are mediaspecific and not necessarily characteristic of the Polish situation. Even though access to leisure, seen here as the main temporal framework for media consumption, had become more differentiated, the heavy predominance

of mass media in general, and of TV in particular, made disparities less evident. Age group, sex and level of education still seem to better explain the practice of leisure in general and media consumption in particular. The level of income seems to play a more stratifying role when it comes to weekend practices and holiday patterns - elements of out-of-home behaviour less essential fi'om the point of view of media consumption. In terms of socio-professional status of the household the retired and living from unearned sources (stipends, dependents, unemployment benefits etc.) were spending more time on mass media (both audiovisual and printed) than any other socio-professional group. With respect to participation rates, the retired and the self-employed were most likely to be reading, watching and listening to the media, together with the gainfully employed they were also heavily engaged in visiting friends and family (lowest participation rates were recorded for farmers, who also had extremely low rates for readership -13%).

Table 2: Media consumption in the structure of leisure time in Poland 1976, 1984, 1996 by sex and year (based on average time) Structure of leisure time in % Year Total leisure time Reading papers and periodicals 1976, 1984, 1996 1976 1984 1996 Reading books 1976 1984 1996 Watching TV 1976 1984 1996 Listening to the radio 1976 1984 1996 Cinema 1976 1984 1996 Total 100.0 6.1 S.6 4.5 4.1 3.3 2.7 35.8 40.0 48.6 2.0 Men 100.0 Women 100.0 4.6 3.8 4.1 4.6 3.8 3.4 34.6 40.2 47.0 3.7 1.7 I.I 0.9 0.4

7.4 7.0
4.9 3.2 2.9 2.2 37.5 40.4 50.0 2.5 2.9 1.2 I.I 0.6 0.3

2.2 1.0 1.2 0.7

Source: own calculations basing on data from Time use survey 1996, CUS, Warszawa 1998

J M M - V o l . 3 - N o . 11-2001

83

With respect to mass media, the levels of media consumption by basic lines of stratification can be summarized as follows^: Age - time commitment is roughly proportional to age (but 25-34 and 45-54 groups show disproportionally lower levels). Time spent on reading papers and magazines clearly increases with age. Book readership takes most time at the age of 18-24, least - at the age of 45-54, then rises again. For TV and video time, it oscillates, showing high values for age groups of 18-24, 35-44, then rising after the age of 55. Listening to the radio and music is U-shaped, reaching highest levels at youngest and oldest age groups. Same patterns apply to participation rates, but readership rates of papers and magazines clearly increase with age. Income - on weekdays, high levels throughout all groups, but most time spend by lowest and third highest income group. On weekends, highest income group spends most time on the media, followed by middle, second highest and lowest income groups. In terms of % participating, same as above, with a single exception: second highest income group has more participants than the highest and third highest group. Sex - significantly more time (by 50 minutes) committed by men at equally high participation rates. Equal time commitment and participation rates for reading. At similar levels of time commitment, twice as many women than men read magazines. The inverse is true for newspapers. Twice as many women read books, but spent less time per activity than men. Slightly lower time and participation rates for watching TV and video among women. Slightly more time devoted to the radio by men, who also have a slightly higher rate of participation in this activity. Education - participation rates increase in proportion to the rising level of education. Predictably, the

rates of participation differ most with respect to reading (gap of 37 points between lowest and highest group), least - with respect to TV and video. Radio and music least popular at middle level of education. When stratification is seen from the perspective of the place of dwelling of respondents, the most obvious disparity in media use can be found between the inhabitants of large cities and those from rural areas, but holds true only for readership of press and magazines and listening to the music. Higher time commitment and participation rates correlated closely with city life. Those living in villages were spending more time watching TV and video. There was no clear pattern of relationship between the size of the city and the use of leisure time, including media consumption. Probably a better explaining factor would be the geographic proximity of the small cities to larger cultural centres and media infrastructure. Finally, in families with numerous children and in single-parent families the time available for various leisure activities outside of home and the percentage of participants was significantly lower than among those with no children. The latter were the only group where the time spent on the media was much lower (generally by one third) than the national average.

important was a complete discontinuity in the level and structure of cost and pricing of goods and services after market reforms came into effect after 1989, accompanied by significant differences in the consumers' purchasing power with respect to various groups of products and services (especially imported ones), as well as across various groups of consumers (losers and winners of the new system). To make the story more complicated, many goods and services related to media consumption ceased to be the object of public provision, which meant that they were not only demonopolised and deregulated, but also that low price reflecting the level of public subsidies has become a thing of the past (this mainly applied to the dailies, books and discount prices for cinema tickets for certain social groups such as students and the retired). Given the reservations raised above, it can nevertheless be argued that after an important fall in the leisure spending in Poland (which accounted for 10% of the household budget in the years 1988-91), since roughly 1993 the share of this expenditure has stabilized at around 5-6% of household spending, with the self-employed and white collars being top spenders'*. In the late 1980s Polish households' leisure spending was dominated by purchases of electronic equipment (replacement of black and white TV with colour sets in the lower income groups and rural areas, purchase of a VCR in other households). A decade later the spending of white collars and of the self-employed grew fastest in the area of holidays and tourism. On the other hand, the rising prices of books, press and magazines, which were still subsidized by the state in the 1980s, also helped to push up spending on these items. This tendency was partly offset by the fact that electronic equipment (both imported and produced at home) became relatively cheaper (see data on the growth of the average wage in Poland expressed in US dollars in Table 5).

3. Media in leisure spending of households

Despite large representative samples used in household spending surveys, the spending categories have not been consistent throughout the recent decades, resulting in a fragmented picture of consumer spending. The picture was further obscured by the use of different aggregations of spending categories and introduction of new socio-economic groups (including the introduction of the self-employed group after 1991). Arguably even more

84

J M M - V o l . 3 - No. I I - 2 0 0 1

If more disaggregated data on household spending was available, it would probably point to the fact that in the 1980s there was little disparity between the structure of leisure spending of the blue and white collars, but in the late 1990s the financial status of the blue collars visibly deteriorated. They were still directing more of their leisure discretionary spending to catch up with the electronic equipment found in the other socio-professional groups, spending relatively more of their modest leisure spending on TV licenses, but not on tourism and holiday spending (see Table 3 below). The data from household budget surveys suggests far greater stratification of leisure spending (including spending on the media) than that suggested by time use studies, especially with respect to income groups. The pattern of spending of the self-employed also seems more distinct from that of the
H

white collars than would appear from the analysis of time use and participation rates. Where white collars seem to excel more is the domain of high culture, including more selective form of media consumption (such as fashionable novels, quality press, coded film channels) the self-employed spend more on tourism, especially vacationing abroad. The spending patterns of the retired were also distinct from those in employment, as was also confirmed elsewhere by data on consumer expenditure surveys in the UK and the US (R.M.Rubin, M.Nieswiadomy, 1994, T.W.Blaine, G.Mohammad, 1991).

4. Media penetration, price relations and cultural participation

Some of the most spectacular changes which took place in Polish media consumption in the 1980s and in the 1990s were related to a substantial improve-

ment in the percentage of households equipped with electronic durables, as well as amelioration in their quality, measured by their age, technological level, functionality etc. By 1999 the presence of these goods in Polish households was comparable to levels found in much richer countries in the EU (see table below). This was particularly true of colour TV sets, Hi-Fi sets, VCRs, cable or satellite TV. With respect to more modern electronic equipment (CD players and recorders, PCs, DVDs etc.) this level was still much lower and subject to steep social stratification, with highest levels found in households of the self-employed and lowest among farmers, hired labour in agriculture, blue collars and retirees. More interesting than the absolute level of saturation of Polish households with media durables is the speed at which this process was taking place.

Table 3: Leisure spending in Polish households 1988-99 (in % of total spending)

1988
National average

1991
National average

1993
Selfemployeed

1996 Selfemployeed

1999 Selfemployeed 00.00 6.03 1.32 -1.32 I.IO 0.38 1.63 85

White collar

White collar

Outgoings per person per month (in % ) Culture and recreation Culture: Newspapers and magazines (with books and stationary for 1998 and 1999)

100.00 10.52 6.22

100.00 9.83 6.29

100.00 3.56 2.70

100.00 100.00 5.01 3.36 5.25 3.33

100.00 3.22 2.28

100.00 100.00 4.59 2.94 5.08 2.86

100.00 100.00 4.68 1.20 6.24 1.33

0.39 -0.52 0 15 O.ll 2.68 2.57 0.61 0.32 1.05 0.35 1.27 0.53 0.80 0.47

0.53

0.52

0.33

0.44

0.45 - 1.20 - 1.33

Books Electronic equipment - of which TV Cultural services

DO O

0.29 0.63 0.25 0.85 0.38

0.23 0.62 0.20 0.73 0.29

0.13 0.45 0.22 0.75 0.48

0.28 0.57 0.18 0.75 0.41

0.19 0.48 0.10 0.79 0.36 1.03 0.54 1.30 0.51

- of which TV license and cable fee Sports, tourism and holidays (mass tourism for 1999)

3.25

2.27

0.86

1.65

1.92

0.94

1.65

2.22

0.75

1993, Source:own calculations basing on household budget surveys, GUS,Warszawa 1988, 1991, 1996, 1999

J M M - V o l . 3 - N o . 11-2001

White collar 1.47

Blue collar

Blue collar

Blue collar

While important differences exist between the different social strata, the general level of media penetration in Polish households in relation to the country's per capita GNP is quite high and steadily raising throughout the different strata of the society. It is difficult to judge media consumption in Poland without analysing changes in the purchasing power of the average wage (data available only for the public sector, but considered representative of the whole economy) versus some media related goods and services. Public statistics offer data on price growth in aggregate spending groups (such as 'articles of cultural usage', as well as on chosen spending items which are part of the 'basket' used to analyse inflation. While by 1998 the general index of growth in prices of all goods (for 1990=100) has reached 734, the data
H

for articles of cultural usage was slightly lower - 709. However, prices of publications increased by 1214 and those of consumer electronics rose nearly three times more slowly than the general price index, which probably further strengthened attractiveness of the media in the trade off against all other forms of leisure. While from 1990 to 1998 the index of price growth for all services in Poland was much higher than for goods -1545, prices for culture, sports and recreation services grew at a slower pace of 1114, but prices for cinema, theatre and museum tickets grew by 1950 and license fees for TV have risen proportionally to inflation. A more vivid picture of the differentiated and sometimes unexpected character of changing price relations for the

media in Poland can be obtained by calculating how much of a given good or service an average wage could buy in a given year. Such annual comparisons are available since 1983 and are presented in the table below. Expressed in US dollars, the average wage in Poland increased roughly by 600% (and by as much as 1800% if 1983 was to be taken as the base year). Even though still low by West European standards, it could buy a far greater range of imported goods. In terms of its purchasing power versus domestic products, there have been great fluctuations in its position relative to the various media goods and services. The most interesting examples came from media durables, where increase in purchasing power has been most spectacular. On the other extreme was the press and cinema, where when compared to 1983

Table 4: Media consumer durables in Polish homes by type of household (per households) 100 1985 houshold radios TV sets - colour VCRs Hi-Fi sets CD players Cable/satellite TV Personal computer Video camera n.a.: not available Source:Rocznik Statystyczny, GUS,Warszawa 1986, 1991, l999,The 1999 household budget surveys, GUS,Warszawa 2000 white collar 82.2 116.4 30.3 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. blue collar 81.9 II 1.9 18.9 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 1988 white collar 90.5 127.7 54.5 3.2 26.9 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. blue collar 88 120.8 34.4 1.2 17.0 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 1990 white collar 96.9 138 79.8 25.1 44.3 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. blue collar 91.5 130.2 59.1 16.9 32.4 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 1999 white collar 53.0 99.3 98.8 79.0 63.8 18.2 69.2 30.5 6.6 blue collar 50.8 99.8 98.2 70.0 64.9 9.5 55.2 9.4 2.4

Table 5: Price/wage relations for some media goods in Poland* spending c a t h e g o r y Cinema admissions Music CDs Polityka (influential weekly) Colour TV 21 PC with monitor Average wage expressed in US $ 1998 107 31 515 1.7 0.55 368 1997 116 36 466 1.06 0.44 329 1996 115 36 459.5 0.97 0.27 320 1995 125 33 395 0.77 0.19 304 1994 122 37 508 0.7 0.18 250 1993 1992 124 26 620 0.62 0.09 195 1991 84 22 700 0.53 0.05 179 1990 193 18 967 0.38 149 1989 518 18 1777 0.12 69
O
fD G.

117
27 512.5 0.55 O.ll 195

* retail Warsaw prices as quoted at the end of December Source: Polityka, No. 2 (2175), January 9, / 999

86

JMM-Vol. 3 - N o . II-2001

or 1989 an average wage could buy one fifth to one fourth of these goods. It can be expected that changes in price relations played an important role in strengthening the position of the media in Polish leisure after the reforms and probably also explained why the levels of cultural consumption (high culture, cinema, publications etc.) have fallen so disastrously, as depicted by cultural participation surveys. The data from statistics on cultural participation suggests far greater changes to Polish media consumption than might be deducted from either time use surveys or household budgets. Since 1972 participation rates in nearly all (other than watching TV) leisure activities have been dropping steadily. If we were to compare data from cultural participation surveys with participation rates recorded in the 1996
H

time use survey, for most activities this drop has reached alarming proportions. All activities related to readership decreased dramatically by the end of the 1990s. Even reading newspapers involved less than one fifth of the population. Books were read by barely over one tenth of respondents. Cinema attendance (over half of the population in the 1970s and one third at the beginning of the 1990s) was close to statistical insignificance (0.5%), while participation in all high culture activities was already statistically insignificant. Paradoxically, this was happening at the time when the output of the Polish media was becoming much more diverse in terms of the film premieres, titles of new publications (magazines, books, but not dailies), radio and TV programming.

5.The Internet
The growing role of the Internet in media consumption has not been acknowledged by time use studies or household spending surveys, but other data were pointing to its rapid expansion. Mass character of this phenomenon in Poland dates back to 1995, when the state telecom monopolist (privatized in 2001) provided public access to the Web for households equipped with a modem. By the end of the 1990s, this form of Web access was still predominant, but the number of Internet providers, diversification of services and - most important of all the number of users, reflected dynamic development. By mid 2000 there were five million Internet users in Poland (or 16% of the population) - a tenfold increase from 1997. At the end of 2000 three in four households equipped with

Table 6: Media output and media providers in Poland (1980-98)

1980 Books published (titles) Books (circulation in min) Newspapers (titles) Newspapers (circulation in mIn) Magazines (titles) Magazines (circulation in mIn) Cinema halls Seating capacity of cinema halls (in mIn) Cinema attendance (in mIn) Production of feature films Radio broadcasters - of which public TV broadcasters - of which public Hours of radio broadcasting Radio subscribers** (in mIn) TV subscribers** (in mIn) Hours ofTV programming Hours of films shown on TV * in 1997 ** i.e. paying a license fee
o

1985 9649 246.321 97 2.467 2846 1.024 2057 0.473 107.08 43

1990 10242 175.562 130 1.390 3007 0.679 1435 0.373 32.798 37 63'"

1995 11925 115.634 108 1.434 4340 1.777 721 0.213 22.613

1998 16462 84.999 81 1.269 5297 1.632 686 0.201 20.318 14 173 17 25 12

1999 19192 78.078 74 1.190 5518 1.527

II9I9 147.138 88 2.627 2482 0.869 2228 0.502 97.540 37

695
0.211 27.475 24 175 17 28 12

23
169

17
31" 24 II 48408 8.666 7.954 8976 2938 52420 10.077 9.468 9161 3150 * in 1999 71584 10.944 9.919 13931 4139 10.193 9.677

9.577 9.266 46 351* 24 881*

9.461 9.187

in 1988 * in 1992

<u

Source;own compilation based on data from: Rocznik Statystyczny 1995, GUS,Warszawa 1995, pp.276-290, Rocznik Statystyczny 1999, GUS, Warszawa 1999, pp.299-305. Culture in 1998, GUS,Warszawa 1999, Kultura fizyczna w latach 1990-98, GUS.Warszawa 1999, pp.20-21, Rocznik Statystyczny Kultury 1989, GUS, Warszawa 1989, p. 188, Informacja o podstawowych problemach radiofonii i telewizji, KRRiTV, Warszawa 2000

JMM-Vol. 3 - N o . II-2001

87

a computer had access to the Internet. Forty six percent of users had access to the Web at home, 36% - at work and 14% at school/university. About one third of those with access surfed the Net every day, over 30% - more than once a day. Forty two percent of the interviewed Polish Internet users were frequently visiting Web pages of popular Polish newspapers and magazines. The bulk of 'consumption' of the Internet was taking place at times known as prime time for television and in consequence 47% of the surveyed Internet users stated that they were spending less time watching television, while 42% rated their TV consumption as 'about the same' and only 2% as 'greater' since they started using the Web. Nearly 70% have been using the Internet since 1997 or later, while only 10% - from 1995 and 4% from before 1993. In many ways Polish Internet users were similar to the profile of US surfers around 1995 - male-dominated, with a predominance of young high school and university students, as well as middle-aged users, relative newcomers to the area, with higher levels of education, coming from large urban areas. Those with broadband access or with LAN connections were a clear minority. When the last time use survey was conducted in Poland in 1996, the time spent on-line was probably not significant and in any case it was not featured in the study. However, by the end of 2000 5 million Poles on-line were spending less time watching TV, but on-line readership carried out by a relatively well-educated Internet population was compensating for the falling levels of traditional 'hardcopy' readership, as shown in the cultural participation statistics. Implications for media analysis This article was written at a time when the Polish media scene was dominated by record-breaking ratings for the first edition of Big Brother and the advertis-

ing revenues of the company which broadcasted that programme were soaring in the conditions of an otherwise declining market. The debate on the media was also focused on the ethical dimension of Big Brother, which was vividly opposed by the country's well known intellectuals, who issued a public warning about the airing of such programmes. Another hot topic was the possibility of launching on the already crowded Polish market of new magazines, which had the backing of major world publishers. There was also some worry about the feasibility of multiplex cinemas under construction and the consolidation of the dailies. The end of the 1990s ended (not only symbolically) a decade of Polish media's spontaneous development, as described and periodised in the works of M.Golka |1997] and R.Filas [1999]. Some of the processes they described included the collapse or transformation of the media present in the communist days, the expansion of new media mainly under the impact of the foreign investors and the consolidation of the Polish media market in the second half of the decade, interrupted by the attempt of new political and religious movements to carve out media space for themselves, great debates on the limits of freedom of the media, the pros abd cons of media commercialisaion (including the implications for high and low culture). The coming of the new decade coincided with the increasing concern about the viability of the quickly expanding media sector at the time the country's economy was slowing down and unemployment grew to 15 percent of the workforce. The considerations presented above deliberately sought to link the changes in media consumption to consumer behaviour, which was in turn associated with the households' purchasing power, price relations and the availability of time, in the broad tradition of theoretical analysis which can be traced back to G.S.Becker's (1975) analysis of human capital, in which money and

time inputs are crucial to household activity. This was to be exemplified by data collected by public institutions on large reliable national samples, with comparable time series and available to the general public. The story of changes in the media consumption in Poland was thus intended to be told from a triple perspective of time use studies, household spending and cultural participation statistics^. When attempting to provide the widest context for considerations on media consumption, much of the presented material makes reference to the concept of leisure as the temporal framework within which media use takes place. This narrows the problem somewhat, since from the perspective of the use of time, media can be a primary (main) or secondary activity (such as listening to the radio while driving the car to work or occasional TV viewing over dinner). The presented time survey data refers to media use only as a primary activity. Nevertheless, the author's argument remains that media consumption should be regarded in relation to consumer choices related also to other forms of spending free (discretionary, leisure) time. In other words, many of the marketing studies of media consumption ignore competition for consumers' time, which is taking place not only among the various media of a given kind (i.e. different magazines or TV stations), but also among the different types of media (i.e. recently between TV and the Internet) and, perhaps most significantly of all, among different leisure activities. A combined analysis of long-term changes in media usage coming from time budgets, household spending surveys and cultural participation statistics sets a wider context for the analysis of media demand. In the case of Poland, this analysis showed that mass media had been expanding at the expense of, rather than alongside, other forms of spending leisure time. Since at least three decades Polish consumers have

a.

88

JMM -Vol.3 - N o . 11-2001

been consistently building up their media consumption - a process which was lately accelerated by favourable 'terms of trade' for media products, as reflected in the expansion of the offer (such as available programming, new journals and periodicals etc.), the relative prices of home durables needed for media consumption and the favourable technological conditions (i.e. for cabling of Polish households and access to the Internet). Price relations between various forms of leisure were clearly favouring the use of home-based media, which proved to be cheapest (in terms of the price per minute of participation) and least sensitive to income stratification. The economic argument is prioritised here as playing a particularly important role at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new decade, when the country's economy began to slow down after nearly a decade of comfortable growth, unemployment was climbing and consumers' demand was shrinking. Nevertheless, the evolution of the Polish media market was showing that even in the times of its consolidation,

falling revenues from advertising and stagnant consumer spending, consumers could still prioritise media consumption over other forms of leisure in their discretionary spending and eventually attain high levels of penetration with modern electronic media, comparable to those found in much richer countries. Income elasticity of demand for media in Poland was shown to be relatively inflexible, with steady progression in media ownership across different income groups. It also showed that even under the conditions of a difficult market the low income groups (such as the retired and even the unemployed) were still likely to allocate their rare means to media consumption, making this their only and 'core' leisure activity. Other lessons which could be learned from the analysis of long-term trends which could be gathered from public statistics was that high levels of cable and satellite TV penetration (in the range of 60% of households) indeed opened unexpected business opportunities for provision of Internet services over cable modems or via satellite/mo-

dem configuration with modest levels of investment, but in other segments of the media market the situation was less optimistic. Long-term trends in cinema consumption should have made foreign investors more cautious. They were constructing a number of multiplex cinemas in Poland's major cities, but at the time this article was written, these multiplexes were in a difficult financial situation and were slashing admission charges to lure some audiences back to cinema halls. Short film runs and small audiences recruited predominantly from 16-24 age group, which in Polish conditions has little money for discretionary spending, did not leave much hope for this segment of the market ['Film Business', 1996]. Whether for academic research or marketing and feasibility studies, there still seems to be a lot of life in public statistics which can be harnessed to the analysis of trends in Polish media use. This now somewhat neglected source of information is still invaluable for the assessment of Polish households' media demand and its (predominantly) economic determinants.
Eilas, R. 'Dziesifc' lat przemian mediow masowych w Polsce (1989-1999). Propozycja periodyzacjV /Ten years of change in the mass media in Poland (1989-1999), Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, No. 1-2,1999. Golinowska, S. (ed.), Komercjalizacja w kulturze. Szanse i zagrozenia (Commercialisation in Culture. Threats and opportunities], Instytut Kultury, Warszawa 1992 Golka, M. Transformacja systemowa a kultura w Polsce po 1989 roku [Systemic transformation and culture in Poland after 1989J, Instytut Kultury, Warszawa, 1997 ]awlowska. A, M. Kempny, and E. Tarkowska (eds.), Kulturowy wymiar przemian spolecznych [Cultural dimension of social change], MS PAN, V\^arszawa 1993

Notes
' For comparison, in the 1965-85 period in the United States, the average weekly free time for all people aged 18 to 64 rose from 35 to 40 hours (Robinson and Godbey, 1997). ' Despite stereotyped image of Poland, the level of religious participation in 1996 was in the range of 25%. Some possible explanations for this growth is presented in section 4 of this article. ' Source: own compilation based on datafromThe 1999 household budget surveys, GUS, Warszawa 2000 " For comparison, according to the Department of Labor's Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average American household's expenditure on entertainment increased from $200 in 1960 to $1834 in 1996, while the share of this spending in the total household budget progressed from 3.3 percent to 5 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1999). ^ The most expensive of these studies - the time use survey - was perhaps the richest in information, but was conducted at irregular intervals due to funding problems.

References
Books and articles
Becker, G. S., Human Capital (Second Edition), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL 1975 Blaine, T.W. and G. Mohammad, An empirical assessment of U.S. consumer expenditures of recreationrelated goods and services: i946-1988. Leisure Sciences, No.l3,1991 Cushman, G. and A.]. Veal (eds.). World Leisure Participation in a Global Village, CAB International, V\/allingford, Oxford, 1996 Danecki,]. 'Social Costs of System Transformation in Poland' in: S.Ringer, C.Wallace (eds.j. Societies in Transition: East-Central Europe Today. Prague Papers on Social Responses to Transformation, Vol.1, CEU, Prague 1993

JMM - V o l . 3 - N o . 11-2001

89

Jung, B. 'Selected audio-visual media markets in Poland in 1996 (TV, cable, film and multimedia markets)'. Working Papers, No.l74, World Economy Research Institute, Warsaw School of Economics, Warszawa 1997 Roberts, K. and B.Jung, Poland's First Post-Communist Generation, Avebury,Aldershot-Brookfield-Hong Kong-Singapore-Sydney 1995 Robinson, J.P. and G. Godbey, Time for Life: The surprising ways Americans use their time. The Pennsylvania State University Press, State College, PA 1997 Rubin, R.M. and M.Nieswiadomy, 'Expenditure patterns of retired and nonretired persons'. Monthly Labor Review, No.lO, April 1994 Szalai, A. (ed.j. The use of time, Mouton, Hague 1972 Tarkowska, E. Czas w zydu Polakow. Wyniki badan, hipotezy, impresje [Time in the life of Poles. Research results, hypotheses, impressions], IFiS PAN, Warszawa 1992 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Issues in Labor Statistics, Summary 99-8, August, 1999

Lagodzinski, W. Uczestnictwo w kulturze. Podstawov^e wyniki badan reprezentacyjnych z lot 1972,1979, 1985,1988 i 1990 [Cultural participation. Basic findings of representative research in 1979,1985,1988 and 1990], GUS, Warszawa 1992 Kultura 1992 [Culture 1992], GUS, Warszawa 1992 [Yearbook of cultural statistics] Kultura w 1993 r. [Culture in 1993], GUS, Warszawa 1994 Rocznik Statystyczny [Statistical Yearbooks:], GUS, Warszawa 1978, 1986, 1991, 1995, 1999 Rocznik Statystyczny Kultury 1989 [Statistical Yearbook of Culture 1989], GUS, Warszawa 1989 Time use survey 1996, GUS, Warszawa 1998 Uczestniawo w kulturze [Cultural participation], GUS, Warszawa 1992 Wyposazenie gospodarstw domowych w dobra trwalego uzytkowania w 1995 [Households equipped with consumer durables in 1995], GUS, Warszawa 1995

About the Author

Bohdanjung (bjungh@sgh.waw.pl) is a professor at the Institute for International Studies of the Warsaw School ofEconomics (SGH), Warsaw, Poland. His research interests span economic and social aspects of culture and recreation, time budgets, consumption patterns, lifestyles, media economics, communication technologies. Recent publications include: "Communication in economic and social perspective" (ed.) [in Polish], Oficyna Wydawnicza SGH, Warszawa 2001, "Media, communication and e-commerce", (ed.) [in Polish], DIEIN, Warszawa 2000, "The New East's New Businesses: Heart of the Labor Market Problem and/or Part of the Solution", Journal of East European Management Studies, Vol. 5, No.l 2000 (with K.Roberts).

Statistical sources
Analiza budzetu czasu ludnosci Polski w latach 1976 i 1984 [Time budget analysis of Poles in 1976 and 1984], GUS, Warszawa 1987 Badania budzetow gospodarstw domowych [Household budget surveys]: 1985,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992, 1993,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999, GUS, Warszawa Culture in 1998, GUS, Warszawa 1999 Film Business, 1996, no. 4/5 Informacja o podstawowych problemach radiofonii i telewizji (Information of basic problems of Polish radio and television], KRRtTV, Warszawa 2000

Internet sources
http://viww.badanie.ae.krak6w.pl http://web.reporter.pl/2000/06/w0903.html

90

JMM -Vol. 3 - N o . 11-2001