The traditional definition of entertainment is obsolete. – Media convergence, social networks and new technological possibilities have changed the reception of entertainment radically. These are just a few results of Hubble’s research about entertainment. In consumer diaries and in-depth interviews, we tried to investigate the understanding, the consumption and the role of entertainment in people’s lives.

Three different groups of people – youngsters, senior creatives and mid-ager women – were asked to write down their daily consumption-habits of entertainment for an entire week. They were also given a disposable camera to capture exciting entertainment-moments. The effort of the participants and the amount of entertainment in their lives were just remarkable.

When analyzing the diaries, it became conspicuous that the definition of entertainment seemed to be the complete opposite of what we found in dictionaries and encyclopaedias before.

1. Most of the traditional sources defined entertainment as the passive consumption of media. In the case of the diary-participants, entertainment meant an active participation.

2. Due to media convergence, the attention span for a single media channel has decreased in the past few years. Our participants, for instance, were using more than one device at a time when sitting in the underground or checking their mails while watching tv or listening to music.

3. In the past, entertainment was solely related to people’s leisure time. These days job and free time seem to overlap. We check private and work emails on the same device and facebook combines friends and colleagues on one platform.

4. Not too long ago gaming seemed to be just reserved for entertainment experts: men in the age of 10-20 years were considered to be the typical gamers. Nintendo’s Wii has proofed that new target groups, like families and older people, can be reached easily by using a simple interface that meet their needs. The age of semi-professionals and amateurs had started.

5. The classical definition of entertainment implies relaxation and amusement. In fact, people want inspiration and stimulation rather than just vegging in front of the tv. We want to emphasize that the perfect entertainment-experience of all participants had to be a real-life event. Despite or because of the growing importance of social networks and digital interaction, the meaning of live-concerts and public viewing-events with friends couldn’t be more significant nowadays. Sometimes even tv-shows like “Germany’s Next Topmodel” or “DSDS” give a reason to meet up and chat with friends.

Hubble’s research showed that the understanding and role of entertainment has changed significantly in the past few years. A new definition of entertainment requires new entertainment products. Examples for those products are still very rare. In the future, companies need to develop products that match people’s needs even better and more efficient than ever before.