• by Wayne Friedman , June 21, 2016

Pivotal Research Group says these results were helped significantly by use of Internet-connected devices, such as Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast -- which rose 56% year-over-year. Pivotal says these devices now account for 7.1% of total TV use among 18-49 viewers on a total day basis.

Prime time witnessed a gain for 2.5% for adults 18-49 and a 2.1% rise for all TV homes.

“Overall, total viewing trends appeared to be more favorable with other recent periods,” writes Brian Wieser, senior research analyst at Pivotal.

For the month, Viacom produced the largest share of 18-49 C3 commercial impressions (average commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifted viewing), among all national media owners, at 16.0%. This is down from the 16.7% result of a year ago.

Viacom, like other networks, is cutting back on what had been high commercial glut among some of its networks.

NBC is at a 14.6% share for commercial impressions (down from 15.2%); with Time Warner at 14.2% (up from 13.2%). Disney also showed declining commercial shares -- to 9.7% from 10.3%.

Overall, average hourly national TV advertising loads in May grew slightly to 10 hours and nines minutes from 10 hours and seven minutes in May 2015.