Time spent on television in European countries: Cross-national comparisons and explanations

Time spent on television is an important topic in communication science. This study aims to explain the variation in time spent on watching television in 15 countries, not merely with determinant defined at the individual level, but also with characteristics defined at the national level, such as the number of channels and nature of the television supply. The results of the multi-level analysis show that individual's time devoted to obligatory activities across countries limits the time people spend on watching television. The number of channels in countries has no effect on time spent on television. However, the more diverse the program supply on national public broadcasting channels in different countries, the less time people spend on watching television. However, this relation decreases when more commercial channels are available to watch. This suggests that people, having commercial channels as alternatives, avoid a diverse program supply in favour of commercial program supply.