At the moment television still reigns supreme over the internet in the United States, a survey of 25,000 Americans by Nielsen Media Research has found.
On an average, one American family spent as much as 8 hours, 14 minutes in front of the television per day in 2005-06. This was three minutes more than the average TV viewing period in 2004-05. An American individual's TV watching time went up 3 minutes per day to 4 hours and 35 minutes, the survey found.
Strangely, the younger generation, the group that heavily uses iPods, computers and cell phones for entertainment, showed a significant increase in its TV watching time. In the age group of 12 to 17 years, the increase in the average time in front of the TV was a good 3 per cent, while in those between the ages of 2 and 11 years, it was 4 per cent.
Teenaged girls were watching more TV than boys, with their total viewing per day going up by 6 per cent, driven by early morning and late night watching that went up 12 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. In the 2-11 group, viewing increased 6 per cent late night, 5 per cent early morning, and 3 per cent during primetime.
Cumulative, an average American family was watching one more hour of TV than did its counterpart in 1995-96. During primetime, families watched TV for one more minute than they did last year with an average of 1 hour and 55 minutes. In case of individual viewers, the figure remained the same at 1 hour and 11 minutes of primetime TV.
“These results demonstrate that television still holds its position as the most popular entertainment platform. At this point, consumption of emerging forms of entertainment, including internet television and video on personal devices 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,” said Patricia McDonough, senior vice president (planning policy and analysis), Nielsen Media Research.
Another interesting finding of the survey was there were more televisions in American households than people. On an average, an American household has 2.73 television sets as against 2.55 people. As many as 50 per cent of American homes sport three or more TV sets, with a relatively small 19 per cent having only one set in the house. This is a huge jump from the 1975 figures, in which there were just 11 per cent homes with three or more television sets as against 57 per cent with only one TV.
One New York family of four, David and Teresa Leon and their four-year-old twins, have as many as eight TV sets. “No one ever sits down for more than a few seconds in this house. This way you can watch TV while you're moving from room to room, folding laundry or taking care of the kids,” said Teresa Leon. Fights over the remote control also become fewer as every family member can watch what he or she wants to.
Meanwhile, the findings show that TV is still the preferred source of entertainment, in spite of digital streaming, iPods and other digital devices. “A lot of people thought that as we entered the 21st century, there was only so much TV that people could watch. And others have said that because of new media, the TV era was somehow over. But TV viewership numbers are going up, and just because there's a revolutionary new challenge from things like YouTube and such, it doesn't mean the fusty old medium of a television set is disappearing. It's not going anywhere,” said Robert Thompson, a TV and culture expert from Syracuse University.
