Mediascope: Russians over 70 watch 6h49m of TV a day, teens spend 5h39m online
Mediascope's new study on media consumption by age shows television and internet use moving in opposite directions as Russians get older. Viewers aged 12 to 24 spend 1 hour 3 minutes a day on TV and 5 hours 39 minutes online, while the 25 to 39 group logs 1 hour 35 minutes of TV against 5 hours 1 minute online. The 40 to 54 group watches 3 hours 1 minute of TV and 4 hours 26 minutes online, the 55 to 69 group averages 5 hours 17 minutes of TV against 3 hours 28 minutes online, and Russians over 70 watch 6 hours 49 minutes of TV daily with 1 hour 30 minutes online. Series rank among the most popular genres, from 23% of viewing time in the 4 to 17 group to 32% in the 55 to 69 group, while children's content takes the largest share, 33%, among viewers aged 4 to 17. Internet reach grew fastest among older Russians between 2022 and 2026: the 55 to 69 group rose from 64% to 81% and the 70-plus group rose from 31% to 37%, while reach among 12 to 24 and 25 to 39 year olds held steady at 97% and 96%.
Campaigns aimed at viewers under 25 need a heavy weighting toward TikTok and online video, since this group puts 62% of its internet time into social media and video platforms and spends five and a half hours a day online against just over an hour on TV. Reach among Russians 55 and older still runs mostly through television: this group watches 5 hours 17 minutes to 6 hours 49 minutes of TV daily, giving series and entertainment programming a large audience, and shows notable presence on Dzen and Odnoklassniki online. VKontakte carries the 25 to 39 group, and both VKontakte and Odnoklassniki carry the 40 to 54 group. News and political programming barely register with viewers under 25, at 5% and 3% of viewing time, but climb to 15% each among viewers over 70, a gap that matters for any campaign built around current-affairs content. Internet reach among the 55 to 69 group grew from 64% to 81% between 2022 and 2026, faster than any other age segment, so budgets that treat older Russians as TV-only will increasingly miss part of that audience online.