TV: We're Still Watching

If you've come across news coverage of the media industry of late, you can be forgiven for believing that audiences are too consumed by their iPhones and the Internet to watch television. These days, suggestions that "TV is on the bubble" might lead you to think consumers are ditching their plasma screens for new platforms. There's just one problem with this — it's wrong. The fact is consumers are watching more television than ever before.

The video experience, however, is widening. Today, for example, more than 130 million U.S. consumers watch video online — up 13% year-over-year — while more than 13 million watch video on their cell phones. The American appetite for video on emerging platforms, it seems, is insatiable.

But such growth is not at the cost of conventional television viewing. Even as consumers increasingly turn to their PCs and cell phones for entertainment, they continue to spend more and more time with traditional TV — 153 hours per month, as of the first quarter of this year.

So if television viewing is up, why all the doom and gloom surrounding the medium?

One reason may be that industry insiders in New York and Los Angeles instinctively believe that typical media consumers behave just as they do.

I recently observed an example of such a misperception first-hand amid a group of media leaders at an industry breakfast discussion. There, a room full of decision makers from print, online and TV, along with private equity and advertising executives, were surveyed about their own video consumption. Among these media professionals, the mean self-reported time spent watching television was only about a third as much as the U.S. average. On the other hand, their viewing of online and mobile video, was considerably higher than average. It's not surprising then, given that their personal media habits vary from the norm, that they were a ways off in their estimates of typical consumer usage.

The point is not that media executives are out of touch with consumers. For the most part they are not; and this small and unscientific survey was insufficient to prove otherwise. Instead, it is the fact that a focus on new and emerging media trends, and the challenges of monetizing them, may skew perceptions of what is commonplace among typical media consumers. It is in this echo chamber that the "decline of television" takes on another life.

Another misconception among some in the industry is that media consumption is a zero-sum game — with television the potential loser. Yet recent research by Ball State University on behalf of the Center for Research Excellence confirms what we at Nielsen continue to find: that people keep adding more media to their lives without abandoning their TVs.

Consumers may watch television online and on mobile devices — while discussing their favorite shows on Facebook and Twitter — but they also watch more television the way they always have: on their televisions, inside their homes.

Advances in video technology should not be understated: the TV industry is changing rapidly and dramatically. Yet rather than creating obsolescence, these innovations are expanding choices. Consumers can now watch their favorite programs on whatever screen best suits the time, place and preferences. Sometimes, that means catching up with a missed television episode online during lunch, or viewing the evening news on their cell phones while on the train home. It also means watching movies, sports or American Idol with the family around the plasma TV at home.

In these ways, it is evident television is not on a bubble. Instead, consumers are renewing and strengthening their engagement with traditional television while adding new screens that expand the viewing experience.

Comments

[lvdragonlady]

Neilsen only reviews a very very small sector of America, so how can they make a blanket statement like this? They give out a few 'boxes' in the back waters of Ohio and the midwest and try to make us believe that this is a cross section of America. BULL.
Neilsen is obsolete and needs to go away, they are NO long relevant.

[NHBill]

They have this science call statistics. It's based on this thing they call probability.

[deckard70]

I have doubts that probability predicts what art people like. It might. I just have doubts that if you had, say, a dozen paintings (standing in for a dozen tv programs), that you could extrapolate from a sample which paintings would be most viewed.

I suppose Nielsen could test this, by seeing if 10,000 gives the same results as their whole 40,000. I'm guessing it doesn't, or else they wouldn't have bothered to expand to 40,000!

[formlessness]

I eliminated my cable 2 years ago and I haven't missed it at all. good riddance.

[formlessness]

Ah Nielsen, desperation is a stinky cologne. If TV were in fact okay, you wouldn't have to go around shouting from the rooftops that everything is peachy.

[josephXY]

I totally agree with you. Sounds all pretty much like the statements from the banks
before they crashed.

[NHBill]

"Methinks they doth protest too much." Ole Bill sure could turn a phrase.

[bossjimgettys]

Everything that Nielsen produces is based on "small and unscientific" surveys, Ms. Whiting, and everybody in media research knows it. Nielsen is still unable to accurately measure television viewing in the home, let alone OOH, cell phone, online etc. Unfortunately, they are a monopoly that holds an entire industry hostage.

[rupert12]

Anyone who is willing to have an electronic box installed in their house to monitor their TV usage is much more likely to watch television than the average person. This obviously skews the data. Of course you won't hear this from a Nielsen person.

[grn1]

GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA IS BORING SUBJECT MATTER, 24, FLIGHT 93, ALL CABLE NEWS??

[moonflowerjewelry]

once our household economy tanked after a lay off and so forth, i killed our cable. didn't get the converter. we have net flix, digital internet. there is nothing on tv that i want to watch, and if i did, it isn't worth the monthly cable bill.
i know quite a few people who have eliminated television altogether.

[jordan3189]

Must be a msnbc guy.HAHAHA

[sb250guy]

By the numbers, you may be right. But I am one of the ones who went cold turkey TV-wise a couple of years ago. I do still watch stuff online a bit, but nowhere near as much. I'm much better off for it.

[tomasedison]

RIVER MONSTERS - on the Animal Planet - Sunday evenings is absolutely great. Be careful where you swim !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JharT0XcAxM

[NHBill]

I'm watching Escape to Chimp Eden.

[EndTheEcho]

Maybe the TV folks should work on good content rather than monetizing every delivery system.

And how about a new law that requires them to have NO paid programming if they are to have use of the additional digital channels they are currently given. If you can't or won't program 24/7 without paid programming, then what the hell do you need a second signal to broadcast on. And don't give me your news replays, or your national (and totally useless) weather feed.

[NHBill]

Unfortunately your local TV stations literally can no longer pay their bills with out paid programming. it has grown to as much as 30% of revenue!

[toocoldout]

I prefer TV over being online. It's more comfortable to lie on a couch watching TV than to sit at a desk surfing the web. Also TV is more relaxing because it's not as interactive as the web, & not hateful the way the web is.

[NHBill]

I hooked my computer up to my TV. Best of both worlds.

[hjfraser2002]

Nielsen, the one to trust? Ha

[Maerwynn]

If television consumption is increasing, what are people finding to watch?

I've got plain old cable no movie channels and I gotta tell ya I go through all the channels twice and there is absolutely nothing on I care to watch. Any time of day or night. So I turn off the tv and go to the Internet. I'm not one for watching videos on the Internet either.

The few things I find on tv are on the History Channel but even they have a whole lotta nothing I care to watch.

So I was just wondering what all these viewers are watching on traditional tv.

[NHBill]

Until recently American idol.

[jeffp26]

If you need to know why the American Empire is in the steepest part of the "decline and fall" phase, this is a very good reason.

We are dumb, and apparently want to get dumber.

[NHBill]

The glass is half full jeff!