Nielsen Report Suggests Significant Shifts in Television Viewing Habits

By Karla Robinson
September 13, 2012

An estimated five million homes don’t get traditional TV service, but according to a new report from Nielsen, 75 percent of those homes still own a television.
“The company’s report shows how the nature of TV service is slowly changing,” Yahoo writes. “Before the percentage started declining about three years ago, more than 99 percent of TV homes received the traditional TV signals. Now that has dipped just below 96 percent.”
Instead of traditional TV, consumers are using their television sets for content on various platforms like DVDs, Netflix and Apple TV.
“During the first three months of 2012, the average consumer spent about 2 percent less time watching traditional TV than the previous year, Nielsen said. They more than made up for that by spending more time watching material recorded on DVRs or on the Internet through TVs, computers and mobile devices,” the article states.
The switch is in part attributed to economic difficulty. Nielsen said it may redefine “what it considers a television household to include people who get service through Netflix or similar services instead of the traditional TV signals,” explains Yahoo.
The report also found that the average consumer spends 14 minutes a day using game consoles, often for watching video; also, people of 65 years or more spend 48 hours a week watching TV compared to the 22 hours that 12- to 17-year-olds spend weekly.

No Comments Yet