• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 11, 2016

Americans assigned a value of nearly $1,200 per year to the free, ad-supported services and content they access via digital media and more than 85% said they preferred to keep the current model in place vs. paying for the same content and services directly. Those are the top line findings of a survey conducted online among 1,004 U.S. adults April 19 and 20 by Zogby Analytics for the Digital Advertising Alliance.

Equally significant in the self-reported findings is the fact that three-quarters of the respondents said they would reduce the amount of time they spend online “a great deal” if they had to pay to access those content and services.

Encouragingly, 80% of respondents said they found ads “useful,” especially ones promoting movies and TV shows (43% of respondents citing), technology/devices (37%), clothing (36%), local restaurants (34%), groceries (33%), phone and Internet services (32%) and travel (30%).