Nielsen Wire » timeshifted viewing

Cross-Platform Hotspots: Top U.S. Cities for TV, Web and Mobile

jeffb — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:22:34 +0000

From bed to the bus, from Portland to Pittsburgh, consumers are embracing all the various video platforms available to them. According to the Nielsen Cross-Platform Report for Q2 2011, roughly half (48%) of Americans now watch video online, compared to 10 percent for mobile and 97 percent for traditional TV. Even with already near-universal usage levels, traditional TV viewing saw an increase of 2 hours 43 minutes per month—with New Orleans taking the lead as the city that watches the most primetime TV.

When are Americans Watching? Whenever.
Over the past two years, since Q2 2009, timeshifted TV viewing jumped 31 percent with near-constant growth. Americans spend more than quadruple the time per week watching timeshifted content on a TV (via DVR, video on demand or DVD playback) as they do online video.

Americans 25-64 spend the most time watching timeshifted content but Americans 65+ and kids 2-11 are catching up, with heightened growth in time spent in recent quarters. Both groups experienced double-digit growth in time spent over last year, while those middle demographics remained relatively the same. White consumers are the most likely to have a DVR and, compared to all DVR households, timeshift more content than other ethnic groups.

How are Americans Tuning In?
Subscription shifts underscore that Americans are putting a new emphasis on broadband. Nearly three-fourths (72%) of U.S. TV homes pay for both a cable-plus TV subscription (cable, satellite or Telco) and broadband Internet. In fact, households with both cable-plus and broadband saw year-over-year growth of nearly 7 percent.

How Does Geography Factor?
Just as there are viewing differences across age, gender and ethnicity, there are regional differences as well. According to the Nielsen Cross-Platform Report:

The south spends the most time watching TV, with New Orleans taking the top spot.
Baltimore has the highest video game console penetration.
Dallas has the highest DVR penetration.
Consumers in the Pacific (West) Region spend the most time watching video on the Internet while the East South Central region spends the most time on the Internet
Miamians are most likely to have a mobile phone in their pockets.
Bostonians have the highest Internet-enabled computer penetration.

Click here to download Nielsen’s Q2 2011 Cross-Platform Report

Looking Towards 2050: Ethnic Trends In Media

Nielsen Wire — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:51:49 +0000

Population trends have clear implications for those involved in the media and advertising industries. There are now more than 114 million U.S. TV households, with immigration continuing to play a major role in population growth. U.S. Census estimates predict that by the year 2050 more than half of the U.S.
population will be non-white.

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.

Record High TV Use, Despite Online/Mobile Video Gains

admin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:00:32 +0000

TV, Internet, and mobile usage continues to grow in the U.S., according to a report released today by Nielsen.

As of Q3 2008, the average American watched approximately 142 hours of TV per month — five hours more than they watched in a typical month during the same period a year ago.

Americans who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, and people who used a mobile phone spent 3 hours a month watching mobile video.

Men were more likely than women to watch via mobile phone, while women were more likely then men to watch video online.

DVR usage was up significantly (52.5%) in Q3 2008, compared with Q3 2007. Americans spent more than six hours per month watching timeshifted TV — double the amount of time they spent watching video online. The only exception: 18-24 year-olds, who consumed more video online (four hours, 48 minutes) than via DVR (four hours, 36 minutes).

During the 2007-08 television season, the average U.S. household took in eight hours and 18 minutes of TV per day, a record high since Nielsen started measuring television in the 1950’s.

“TV use is at an all-time high, yet people are also using the Internet more often — 31% of which is happening simultaneously,” Susan Whiting, vice chairperson, Nielsen, noted.

Download the report.

Learn more about viewing across the “three screens” – view Manish Bhatia, of Nielsen, addressing the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s December 2008 forum.