U.S. television viewing his a new high

from mediaweek

Nielsen: TV Viewing Grows Despite New Media Distractions
John Consoli

Data released by Nielsen Media Research today shows that American
television viewing continues to increase despite growing competition
from new media platforms, like video MP3 players, cell phones and
streaming video.

Obveeus...

I wonder if they have done any studies to determine what qualifies as
watching. I would guess that increasingly, the TV sets that are ON are in
the same room with internet connections that are actively being used. At

David...

That might be even better for advertisers, though. If the tv is on in
the background you're probably not channel surfing so you end up
getting more out of the commercials than if you were watching intently
and switching channels.

David Johnston...

Of course they do. People who multi-task are still exposed to the
commercials.

some point, we will get data showing TV use has increased to 10 hours per
day and internet/videogame use has increased to 10 hours a day...and the
data people will ignore the fact that people are still sleeping 7 or 8 hours
a day. There has to be some overlap increase going on.

The total average time a household watched TV during the 2005-06
season was 8 hours and 14 minutes per day, a 3-minute increase from
the 2004-05 season, and a record high. The average amount of TV
watched by an individual viewer last season was 4 hours and 35 minutes
per day, also up 3 minutes. During prime time (8-11 p.m. weekdays and
Saturdays, and 7-11 p.m. Sundays), households watch TV an average 1
hour and 54 minutes per night, up 1 minute, while the average viewer
watched 1 hour and 11 minutes, flat over 2004-05.

While teens seem to be flocking to new media platforms, the Nielsen
data showed that teens aged 12-17 viewed 3 percent more traditional
television during the day last season, than they did during the
2004-05 season. The increase, Nielsen said, was driven primarily by
teenage girls, who increased their total day TV viewing by 6 percent.
Teen girls showed the most increase in watching TV from 6-9 a.m. and
from 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., Nielsen said.

Younger kids, aged 2-11, also watched more TV during the 2005-06
season, increasing total day viewing levels by 4 percent.

African American and Hispanic total day persons' TV viewing levels
increased by 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively, buoyed by large
increases among children and teenage girls.

"These results demonstrate that television still holds its position as
the most popular entertainment platform," said Patricia McDonough,
senior vp of planning policy and analysis at Nielsen. "At this point,
consumption of emerging forms of entertainment, including the Internet
television and video on personal devicces seem not to be making an
impact on traditional television viewing. This is especially true
among teenage girls, who have shown significant increases in viewing
during the past year."