Fast Facts:

• Average Number of TVs per U.S. Household: 2.5
• Percentage of Americans with 4 or more TVs: 31%
• Number of Mobile Phone Users (13+): 228M
• Percentage of U.S. Mobile Subscribers with Smartphones: 31%
• Number of mobile phone web users: 83.2M

For more, download Nielsen’s State of the Media – U.S. Audiences and Devices

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Nielsen’s “Ethnic Trends In Media,” is a comprehensive report profiling African-American, Asian, Hispanic and White households in the U.S.  This report examines household characteristics, television usage, timeshifted viewing and popular programming genres for each group.

Key findings include:

• Household characteristics are quite different across each ethnic break.  Size, geographic territory and media ownership, such as video game consoles and DVRs, are just some of the notable differences

• TV usage is different: Persons age 18-49 in African-American households view more TV than Total U.S., while Hispanic and Asian persons in the same age group was less.

• The median age of a TV viewer is 45, but African-American, Asian and Hispanic viewers tend to be younger (40, 39, 32, respectively).

• Participation variety shows, such as Dancing with the Stars and Biggest Loser 6, are the most popular genre for total U.S. viewers, and are near the top for all ethnic breaks.  Fox NFL Sunday Football was the top or near-top program for all ethnic breaks except for Hispanics, who favored “Fuego En La Sangre” on Univision.

Download a PDF of the full report here.

During this period, households with broadcast only (i.e., no cable or satellite service) TVs declined from 11.5 percent to 10.9 percent while cable or satellite service has increased slightly from 88.5 percent to 89.1 percent.  This increase may be related to the upcoming transition to digital television that was originally set to take place in February 2009.

Satellite service grew modestly as well, from 28.0 percent to 28.8 percent.  Cable or satellite service with pay channels, such as HBO, Showtime and Cinemax, has grown steadily over the five quarters, from 47.0 percent to 49.4 percent.

Digital Video Recorders (DVR) have grown in popularity over the last five quarters, with 28.9 percent of households owning a device, up from 21.3 percent in Q4 2007.  20.2 percent of homes have one DVR, while 8.7 percent have two or more devices. Homes capable of receiving high definition television jumped from 12.9 percent on Q4 07 to 23.4 percent in Q4 08.  Video game console ownership increased from 37.8 percent to 39.0 percent, while homes containing personal computers with internet access increased from 70.9 percent to 73.8 percent.  More than 54 percent of households had one or two TVs, 24.9 percent owned three TVs while 20.8 percent owned four or more sets.

“At this point, we have no indication that economic factors are causing homes to cancel their cable subscriptions or cut back on DVR, HD, gaming or Internet capabilities.  These segments have remained steady – or in some cases, increased – over the five quarter period we studied,” said Pat McDonough, senior vice president of Planning Policy & Analysis at Nielsen.  “That said, one factor that may be masking any economic component is the digital transition.  It may have been necessary for some homes to invest in new equipment to prepare for the conversion.”

In terms of device usage, Nielsen found no significant increases or declines in TV viewing, DVR playback, DVD playback or video game console use, suggesting that the economy has had no measureable impact on these activities.

According to a separate Nielsen survey, the Home Technology Report, consumers continue to purchase new technologies for home entertainment.

The Home Technology Report telephonically surveyed 1,433 people in Q4 2008.

The difficult economic conditions have forced most Americans to think about how they spend their money, so it is little surprise that 63 percent of those surveyed said that they had changed their spending habits.  26 percent said that they had cut back TV-related spending, primarily by purchasing fewer video on demand and pay-per-view movies/events (16%) or making fewer purchases and rentals of DVDs (19%).  11 percent of people surveyed said that they had altered their cable/direct satellite subscription package in some way, while 3 percent said that they had cancelled their subscriptions altogether.

Overall, more men and women aged 18 to 34 said that they had cut back on TV-related spending, and that same age group also cancelled their cable/satellite subscriptions at higher rates than other age groups. Households with kids changed their spending habits slightly more (66%) than the group as a whole, as did African-American, Asian and Hispanic Households (70%, 75%, 77%, respectively).  Hispanics also cancelled their cable/satellite service at a much higher rate than other groups, with 13 percent of those households ending their service versus the overall average of 3 percent.

“While some kinds of discretionary spending, such as travel and car and clothing purchases, have taken a significant hit, TV-related expenses have been spared significant cuts at this point.  Consumers may reduce the number of movies they rent, or perhaps downgrade their service, but overall it appears that TV continues to be almost a necessity rather than discretionary,” said Pat McDonough, senior vice president of Planning Policy & Analysis at Nielsen.

To read more about this and other related data, click here for Nielsen’s SportsQuest^TM Survey.

The game, which aired on TBS Sunday night, drew almost 13.4 million average viewers, easily surpassing game four of last year’s Indians v. Yankees division series, which claimed second place overall with 9.2 million average viewers.

TV viewership of the ALCS games surged after the Red Sox overcame a seven-run deficit in game five to beat the Rays and stay in the series. 

Last Thursday, game five drew 7.2 million average viewers.  Game six of the series pulled in 8.9 million viewers, securing third place in Nielsen’s ranking of the all-time top MLB playoff game broadcasts on cable TV.

View Nielsen’s full ranking of MLB playoffs ratings, dating back to 1996.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Mediaweek.

Broadcast television placements grew by almost 12% between January and June of 2008, while placements on cable television declined by 20%.

Changes in program line-ups accounted for the growth of broadcast placements — and the decrease in cable placements. 

On the broadcast side, two programs with a significant number of product placements aired more episodes in early 2008, boosting the overall number of placements in the first half of the year.  NBC’s “Biggest Loser,” which normally airs in the fall, moved the start of its fifth season up to January 2008, while FOX’s “Hell’s Kitchen” started its fifth season in April, several months earlier than it did in 2007. 

On the cable side, shows like TLC’s “American Chopper” and “Miami Ink,” MTV’s “Run’s House” and “Pimp My Ride,” and A&E’s “Driving Force” and “Dog The Bounty Hunter,” which featured a large number of product placements in early 2007, aired less frequently or were removed from cable primetime line-ups during the first half of 2008. 

Overall, 204,919 product placements aired on broadcast and cable TV programs between January and June of 2008. 

Nielsen’s report includes data for 11 networks, including ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, MNT, NBC, A&E, Bravo, HGTV, MTV, and TLC.

View the full press release.

Read more about product placement trends in Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” newsletter.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Condé Nast Portfolio, Ad Age, Variety, The New York Times, Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, The Globe and Mail, and MediaPost.