ABSTRACT

When examining the overall operating environment that media exists within, time and space are key defining factors. Together they are referred to as ‘marginal utility’. Time is fixed, as there are only 24 hours a day available within which the public can select and consume product or simply spend time doing an activity that does not involve the purchase of any product or monetary outlay. One of the economic variants that media analysts focus on is how cultures and economies vary from territory to territory, and within different sociological demographic groups. Specifically, people and communities that spend relatively less time working in turn create more available leisure time. Higher levels of working hours, by contrast, are assumed to create less leisure time. By calculating the marginal utility of leisure versus the marginal cost of foregone income from working, market analysts can take an initial step towards understanding media market parameters.