Americans Watching More TV Than Ever, Neilsen Says

by Eric Savitz, July 8, 2008

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Americans in May watched more hours of television than ever before, according to Nielsen.
In May, Nielsen reports, the average American watched 127 hours and 15 minutes of television, which comes to something just over 4 hours a day. That’s up 4% from 121 hours, 48 minutes in May 2007. There are some signs of change elsewhere in the data, however. Those figures include a jump in time-shifted TV to 5 hours, 50 minutes, from 3 hours, 44 minues, an increase of 56%. Average Internet usage increased to 26 hours, 26 minutes per month, up 9% from 24 hours,16 minutes last May. The average American watched 2 hours, 19 minutes of video on the Internet in May; mobile video subscribers watched an average of 3 hours, 15 minutes on their devices in May. (Nielsen has no year-ago data on Internet video or mobile video.)
A couple of other tidbits:

• The highest level of television watching was among those age 65 or older, with 177 hours, 50 minutes of watching in May. The average for kids 2-11 was 87 hours a month. (Clearly, as we get older…we learn to watch a lot more television.)
• The biggest users of time-shifted TV were those 25-34 years old, with an average of 9 hours, 28 minutes. (Oldsters are the least heavy uses of DVRs, watching on average just 2 hours, 57 minutes.)
• Highest Internet usage was among the 35-44 year old group, with average of 38 hours, 47 minutes. Lowest usage: the 2-11 year olds, at 4 hours, 58 minutes.
• Highest level of mobile TV use was among those 13-17, with an average of 5 hours, 25 minutes. Least heavy users: 55-64 year old subscribers, at 2 hours, 10 minutes. There was no data for those 65 and older; almost none of them bother to subscriber to mobile video services.

Something Else to Consider

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