• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 13, 2010

According to the Pew Social & Demographic Trends Center, reported here last week, consumers are increasingly less likely to consider TV sets as necessities. But reported today, Nielsen estimates an increase of one million TV homes in the U.S from last year, climbing to 115.9 million for the 2010-2011 broadcast season.

 

Nielsen also estimates an increase of more than two million persons age two and older (P2+) in U.S. TV households, for a total of 294,650,000 people.

 

U.S. TV Universe
Season	Households in Millions
2010-2011	115.9 MM
2009-2010	114.9
2008-2009	114.5
2007-2008	112.8
2006-2007	111.4
2005-2006	110.2
2004-2005	109.6
2003-2004	108.4
2002-2003	106.7
2000-2001	102.2
Source: The Nielsen Company, August 2010

 

The rankings of the Top 10 local TV markets were unchanged, but in the Top 20, the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area moved ahead of Denver. No new markets entered the top 100, however there were several changes within the ranks. Austin, TX had the largest spike within the top 100 ranks, moving from 48 to 44.

 

Top 20 U.S. TV Markets (2010-11 Season Estimates)
Market	2010-11 Rank	2009-10 Rank
New York	1	1
Los Angeles	2	2
Chicago	3	3
Philadelphia	4	4
Dallas-Ft. Worth	5	5
San Francisco-Oak-San Jose	6	6
Boston (Manchester)	7	7
Atlanta	8	8
Washington, DC (Hagrstwn)	9	9
Houston	10	10
Detroit	11	11
Phoenix (Prescott)	12	12
Seattle-Tacoma	13	13
Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota)	14	14
Minneapolis-St. Paul	15	15
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale	16	17
Denver	17	16
Cleveland-Akron (Canton)	18	18
Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn	19	19
Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto	20	20
Source: The Nielsen Company, August 2010

 

There were more changes in the rankings compared to last year, yet still not as many as previous years:

• It was a tie for the largest increase in TV households, with Odessa-Midland and Austin, both rising four spots.
• The decline in the overall number of rank changes the past few years reflects overall slower household growth in the U.S. and large declines in domestic migration, particularly to Sun Belt areas.
• Major metropolitan areas lost less population than usual partially attributable to Baby Boomers delaying retirement plans, individuals unable to sell their homes, and/or individuals unwilling to move away from job-heavy markets
• The recent increase in rank changes for this year seems to imply some of these phenomena are relatively short term and/or heavily contingent upon economic conditions

 

Similarly, while many Florida markets had dropped in rank in the latest estimate (Tampa, Miami, Ft. Myers, Tallahassee) partially as a result of the aforementioned phenomenon. There is evidence of some "bounce back" for markets such as Miami and Tallahassee. Further, previous "high growth" markets (e.g. Las Vegas, Florida markets) which showed diminished growth or even declines in the last two estimates seemed to "stabilize" for the most recent estimate.

 

For the first time since the Hurricane Katrina recovery period, the New Orleans market rank has declined (from 51 to 52). Though population in the market has increased, recent trends in Persons Per Household (PPH) indicate that previous PPH assumptions were too conservative (i.e. assuming fewer people per household).

 

For all these markets, the decreases and/or growths do not necessarily reflect a true decline in population or households. The estimates may also reflect an adjustment to align with the most recent information from the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

To read more from the report, please visit Nielsen here .