• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 2, 2017

Are there fewer television sets in homes? No worries. There are plenty of other screens to sell people TV programming, advertising, home videos and native content.

The Energy Information Administration says that as of 2015, there are now 2.3 TV sets per home. That's down from 2.6 sets in 2009. Surely, the rise of smaller screens accounts for the dip.

Big TV content producers aren’t exactly worried.

That’s because the size of the remaining TV sets keeps climbing -- to around 55 to 60 inches on average. So when you think about it, what we really need to consider is total screen area.

Think time-shifted viewing has allowed home residents to be more efficient with their big-screen TV time? Nielsen says in 2016 there were 56.88 total hours of viewing time per week -- live and time-shifted TV viewing. That's down from 60.07 in 2013.

At the same time, TV set manufacturers haven’t stopped selling the latest and the greatest. They push new technology, such as 4KTVs and OLED technology TV equipment, even though few TV networks/pay TV providers (cable/satellite/telco) are on board with newer TV technologies.

And then we have multitasking of small screens -- real TV/media erosion against the bigger screens. No need for those extra 24” or 32” TVs in the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms and man caves.

Now consider the future. Consumers always want the best TV technology, even if they can’t always “see” it. Perhaps smart TVs will have more future value. They will be fully internet-enabled TV sets, which can seamlessly connect with other screens/devices.

If that doesn’t work, we always go back to the obvious lure: size. What can future living rooms accommodate? I’m guessing we’ll need interior decorators demanding that we commit to an entire wall of TV-media screens in the years to come.

Then you can focus on what you want.