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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.