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Snapshot of U.S. Television Usage: What We Watch… and How

September 23, 2010

With the new TV season upon us, Nielsen has provided a look at what, and how, we watch TV in the U.S. Throughout 2009-2010, television viewing continued to fragment and adapt to new technologies such as digital video recorders and high-definition television.

Fast Facts
There are 115.9 million homes in the U.S. with at least one TV – up roughly 1 million homes from the previous TV season.

number-of-tvs

Viewing averages
• The average American watches 35:34 (hours/minutes) of TV per week
• Kids aged 2-11 watch 25:48 (hours/minutes) of live TV per week
• Adults over 65 watch 48:54 (hours/minutes) of TV per week

Top Genres

tv-by-genre

DVR and HD Usage

dvr-hd

For the complete view, including to shows and networks from last season, download Nielsen’s State of TV fact sheet.

For more insights, download Nielsen reports and webinars, or contact us.
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  • http://themsnumbers.blogspot.com Matt B.

    That "Viewing by Genre" chart is completely useless because you say right there that the data only comes from broadcast networks. Isn't the broadcast share compared to all of cable a very low number? How can you pass this off as representative of general viewing habits?

  • onlythefacts

    Matt, this data represents all viewing by all TV Households. This includes broadcast network, cable and satellite. In the future, you may see online or other sources on this list. The data is not restricted to broadcast network viewing and represents what people actually watch.

  • Jack

    You show that 31% of US Households have 4 or more TV's. Can you break that down a little more? How many households have 4,5 and then 6 or more TV's?

  • http://robbygates.com Robby

    That break down would be interesting considering it is the largest percentage shown.That data was a shock. – Robby

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