Nielsen Wire » viewing habits

More than Half the Homes in U.S. Have Three or More TVs

Nielsen Wire — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:31:48 +0000

New findings from Nielsen’s Television Audience Report show that in 2009 the average American home had 2.86 TV sets, which is roughly 18% higher than in 2000 (2.43 sets per home), and 43% higher than in 1990 (2.0 sets). In addition, there continue to be more TVs per home than people – in 2009 the average U.S. home had only 2.5 people vs 2.86 television sets.

This year about 54% of homes in the U.S. had more than 3 or more television sets, 28% had 2 television sets and only 18% had 1 television set.

Other Key Stats

There are 114.5 million TV homes in the U.S. in 2009

38% of U.S. TV homes have digital cable.
88% have a DVD player, while VCR fell to 72%.
82% of homes have more than 1 television set.
11% of U.S. TV homes only have the capability to receive TV reception “over the air”. These homes have neither cable nor ADS.

Download Nielsen’s Television Audience Report.

State Of The Media: Content Is Still King

Nielsen Wire — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:14:04 +0000

Consumers have more choices than ever from which to access media: traditional television, the Internet, and mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. As more options exist, they serve to actually increase the amount of time people view media as opposed cutting into viewership of one format or another. Despite the array of options, television continues to be the primary way Americans of all ages consume media. In the last quarter of 2008, the average Nielsen household watched more than 151 hours of television per month. Internet users logged on for 27 viewing hours a month and mobile subscribers consumed nearly four hours of video on a mobile phone and almost three hours on the Internet.

Other findings include:

Despite 3 in 10 households owning a DVR, live TV continues to be the favorite way to watch TV.
54 percent of U.S. households have one or two TVs.
Hispanic households are more than twice as likely as other groups to download movies.
Fully 91 percent of households have Internet access, with 57 percent having high-speed connections.
Viewers can be clustered into eight discrete segments based on gender, age, media consumption levels, ethnicity and social outlook.

“Media has become a digital funhouse: phones deliver TV programming. Computers enable phone calls. Televisions serve as gaming arcades. Consumers access video wherever and whenever they can. But the fact remains that TV still dominates,” said Dave Thomas, President, Global Media Client Services at Nielsen.

Read a complete review of the state of the media in the current edition of Nielsen’s Consumer Insight.

Younger Boomers Are Top Video Media Consumers

Nielsen Wire — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:08:07 +0000

A ground-breaking study conducted by Ball State University’s Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners found that younger baby boomers – those 45-54 years old – are the top consumers of video media.

Conducted on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence, the study ran over the course of a year and used a custom media collector program developed by Ball State. Researchers gathered a wide range of data usage of any of the four categories of screens: traditional TVs (including DVD/VCR and DVR viewing), computers, mobile devices and “all other screens,” including in-cinema movies, GPS and display screens outside of the home.

Key findings of the study include:

Consumers aged 45-54 racked up an average of more than 9 1/2 hours of screen time a day.

The average for all other age groups was similar at roughly 8 1/2 hours.

Computer video watching took on average just two minutes a day.

TV still dominates, even among those aged 18-24.

Radio usage has dropped to third, behind TV and computer usage, but ahead of print media.

TV viewers were exposed to an average of 72 minutes of TV ads and promos every day, dispelling the conventional wisdom that people are channel-hopping or otherwise avoiding ads.

Read the full press release .