TV Viewers Up Overall Screen Time, Online Video

by Wayne Friedman , December 3, 2014

U.S. viewers continue to lose interest and time spent in live television programming — but continue to gain in overall screen time.

Nielsen’s third-quarter 2014 total audience report shows that on a monthly basis, Americans saw more than an hour increase in time spent watching time-shifted content and a four-hour gain watching video on the Internet. There were also gains with using a “multimedia device” and gaming console.

Overall, Americans spent a little more than 141 hours a month connecting with traditional television in third-quarter 2014 — down from 147 hours in the third quarter of 2013. Adults 65 and older spend 211 hours a month — the most of any viewing group — while teens 12-17 spend the least time, at 89 hours.

Average daily time spent watching live TV declined 12 minutes — from 4 hours and 44 minutes in third-quarter 2013 to 4 hours and 32 minutes in third-quarter 2014.

Looking at specific TV audiences, African-American viewers watch more traditional television than any group — now more than 201 hours per month.

On the flip side, Asian-American viewers watch the least at 82 hours per month. Hispanic-American viewers also under-index in regard to monthly time spent watching traditional TV — about 117.

Screens gaining time include smartphones — where consumers' daily time spent increased 23 minutes, from 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 33 minutes per day.

"Watching TV" photo from Shutterstock.

demographics, media measurement, trends, tv

3 comments about "TV Viewers Up Overall Screen Time, Online Video".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 3, 2014 at 4:14 p.m.
Basically, these are tiny shifts, and the whole process of change is proceeding at a snail's pace. Even if you look at the five year trends, it is evident that "live" or "traditional" TV viewing is going to remain the dominant form of viewing---except for a small minority of very young, tech-oriented, people----for a very long time. Still, there are changes taking place----like the steady rise of delayed viewing and the growth of out-of-home platforms that need to be evaluated.
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Michael Greeson from TDG, December 4, 2014 at 12:18 a.m.

It still amazes me that Nielsen's data continues to report smartphone video viewing of 1-1.5 hours per day. And that's an average among all consumers, not just smartphone users or smartphone users that view video. As a researcher, I believe these numbers are suspect. Honestly, how may people do you know that spend 1-1.5 hours each day watching video on their smartphone? Not that you don't know a few, but to declare that is the average viewing habits among all consumers is specious.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 4, 2014 at 5:26 a.m.

Mike, Nielsen's report has the average adult spending only 12 minutes per week "watching" videos on smartphones, if I am reading the first table in its report correctly.