Time-Shifted TV Watching Rises, Net Use Dips

Viewers watching time-shifted traditional TV continue to rise, but users of video on a computer -- as well as general computer usage -- declined in the third quarter of this year.

Users of time-shifted traditional TV have increased -- now up 11% to 167.1 million in the third quarter. This group now represents 59% of all traditional TV users, which rose slightly to 283.6 million.

Nielsen says there was a 9% decline in the number of users watching video on the Internet -- to 147.7 million on a monthly basis in the third quarter of 2013 versus the third quarter of a year ago. This comes from the latest Nielsen cross-platform media report.

The company also said the number of general users of the Internet via computer also dipped a bit -- 5% -- to 200.0 million versus the third quarter of 2012.

Mobile phone users have been going in the other direction. Analysts have said mobile and tablet usage growth will come at the expense of time spent with traditional computers.

For example, Nielsen says in the third quarter, there was a 40% rise in watching video on a mobile phone between August and October to 53.1 million users. Overall, mobile phone users rose slightly -- 1%, to 239.8 million.

"Watching TV" photo from Shutterstock.

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2 comments about "Time-Shifted TV Watching Rises, Net Use Dips".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, December 4, 2013 at 7:58 a.m.

    Who needs a computer when you can watch your TV via Chromecast from Netflix on your iPhone? This $35 dongle from Google is the perfect stocking stuffer.

  2. Joshua Chasin from VideoAmp, December 4, 2013 at 10:03 a.m.

    At comScore we show a slightly different story. Viewers of videos on home-owned and/or work-owned computers has held steady the past 3 months (August through October) at around 188 million.

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