Nielsen's just released some zingers (also known as statistics) for you to chew on while you listen to a YouTube clip (something about Obamacare) drone on in another tab, tell your significant other to "hold on" and track your Domino's pizza in
a completely different tab. The annual
Three Screens report, as it's called, has some choice data on American habits, such as the fact that television consumption (average number of hours watched per day) has increased to nearly 35 hours per week per person. What else can we glean from this treasure chest of minutiae? Well, about 59 percent of Americans now multitask in front of the teevee with their laptops for an average of three and a half hours a month. A final interesting tidbit here -- flying in the face of popular wisdom, it seems that the older you are, the more television you're likely to watch -- so keep your eye on your great Aunt Dot, folks: it's possible she might be addicted to Gossip Girl. Hit the source link if you want to download the entire report (it's a PDF).
posted March 23rd 2010 2:49PM
i dont have a tv.
@elduderino Nobody cares.
@Paul Ryan I did! That changes EVERYTHING for me!
@elduderino you bring up an interesting notion. is this data from the same 25k households they get the magic 10 million viewers from. cause if so, it's just as faulty as those viewer numbers. they really have no way of knowing if anyone else is or isn't watching a show or even has a tv
@Charlik
If you knew anything about statistical analysis you would know that it actually CAN tell you how many people are watching. As long as the sample is proper, you can use it as representative of the overall Data.
Working full time I would have a hard time watching 35 hours of TV a week, so this has to be swayed by kids.
@Charlik Given a sample size and the size of the source population, you can compute a confidence interval. It's quite surprising how well you can represent the overall population with a sample size of few thousand, as long as the sample is randomized. Multiplying the sample size by two or a thousand isn't going to make much different, just make the work more expensive.
@Charlik That's what they want you to think! You're actually being watched by infra-red satellites, which then counts the number of people sitting in front of a tv, and cross-references your gps position to your cable records. They even have sophisticated algorithms that determine you age by digitally enhancing the shape of your head. Just do what I did and line you attic with tin foil.
@elduderino
Is it just me or does the follow stat seem way too low?...
"about 59 percent of Americans now multitask in front of the teevee with their laptops for an average of three and a half hours a month"
I would guess they meant to say 3.5 hours a DAY.
@elduderino Don't worry buddy! Now that Obama can mandate economic activity, I hear he's working on making it mandatory for every American to buy a TV.
BTW - Loved Videodrome!
@cupidpsyche
Long live the new flesh!
@cupidpsyche I came in here to say the same thing. Scarred me for life, in a good way.
@cupidpsyche I KNEW! I knew it was videodrome. Yeah was a great movie.
@cupidpsyche I saw a scene from that when I was very young, staying with a babysitter. It was the scene where the guy points his finger at another guy, causing his insides to erupt and his eyeballs pop out. I was HORRIFIED.
Yucky, old, gun-wielding, membranous, tube television for the lose. Do NOT want.
@InspectorEngadget
wait til the hdtv version comes out ;-)
@InspectorEngadget
Oh, good, that's a gun! I was trying to figure out what that shape was and was coming up with nothing nearly that pleasant.
Whew.
I'm one of those. I'm always doing stuff on my computer while I'm watching shows I DVR'd 2 months ago but haven't had time to watch yet.
@TheAngryIntern I couldn't count the hours I've spent on my laptop/nexus one while watching tv. In fact I have history channel up right now.
@TheAngryIntern Same here.
And if it's not the computer and the TV, it's checking the Internet from my phone while watching TV. Or, amazingly enough, it's checking status updates and tweets from my phone while on the Internet at my computer.
@TheAngryIntern
The key here is "watching" tv. i will have it on the whole time i am sitting on the couch on my laptop. so does that count as "watching"? I am not absorbing anything but yeah, it's on.
I have TV but it's only use it has is to be a giant monitor for my laptop...
I wonder who they've been monitoring? I haven't watched a show on my TV for more than 5hrs a month. Most of the shows I catch are on hulu on my pc.
Wow. The Canadian numbers were released recently and I think it was like 18 or 19 hours per week and I thought that was a lot. Im not judging anyone because I probably watch more than one needs as well (how can I resist new seasons of South Park and Breaking Bad).
Please don't bring politics in here, engadget. Remember, we need to keep things relevant to the topic at hand :p
35 hours of TV per week boggles my mind.
I'm skeptical about this... At least at my house one of the DirecTV receivers is always on, and only the TV is turned on or off when being watched. So if Nielsen is working with DirecTV to get their data, it looks to them like we're watching TV 24 hours/day, plus there are a whole lot of shitty shows getting a ratings boost from us.
this just in, Americans are also overweight. shocker.
@willowtwf I'm sure people in the Central and Southern America's take offense to your generalization that the USA makes up all of "America".
Two reasons why this isn't shocking:
Some people may not have noticed, but a *lot* of people have been without jobs for an extended period of time.
Also, I know a good number of people who leave the TV on at all times just for some background noise. I think it's a waste of power (if I'm alone, which is often, I'll usually have a podcast droning in my ears from my PMP, which at least uses significantly less power). Again, they also multitask when they're actually watching it.
If anything, I've personally seen a sharp decline in the amount of TV watched.
Which is worse; watching too much tv or sitting at the bar?
@Jamescb, obviously watching tv is worse..
@Jamescb Depends on who/what you take home with you afterward.
@Jamescb That's easy: watching too much TV.
I don't watch TV. I have a TV, but it's for the movies I rent, and the games I play.
I almost don't watch TV, 30 minutes in the morning during breakfast and 45 minutes for the evening news.
I watch all my movies and series on my laptop and on my phone.
3.5 hours a MONTH while sitting on the couch and watching TV with a laptop? Hell I did twice that, EVERYDAY when I was home over spring break last week.
I only watch TV for sports games. I use my laptop for everything else, including watching TV shows (Hulu, Justin.tv etc).
Maybe when these electronic readers get more affordable more people will read electronic books. Nah! http://smi.sh/35a14
This is a more timely price drop article on readers. http://smi.sh/e901c
It's just the opposite for me. The older I get, less TV I watch...
Nothing like the boob tube and internet. And beer and pizza. We call that a great night.
i've watched maybe an hour of actual tv this month so far. Do shows i download count?
James, do we really have to watch "Videodrome"?
Yeah, I think you're really going to appreciate all the subtle nuances of my performance. See, even though that guy is talking, your eye is drawn to me.
Yeah, is there going to be any nudity?
Yes, I get naked.
This report says the avg person only watches two hours of "time shifted" tv a week. I watch 90 percent of my tv shows "time shifted" I wasnt aware that anyone still watches live tv. I personally havent for the last 3 years.
I guess I spend something like 5 hours a day watching TV but I am watching a lot of political shows and listen to a lot of it while I am doing other things, like when I cook dinner.
Another survey found Canadians watch:
- 16.9 hours of television per week
- 18 hours of internet per week
Neilsen's data found Americans watch:
- 35 hours of television per week
- 4 hours of internet per week
Are Canadians really that different from Americans? Something smells fishy in these results.
Folks, take a look at the report. Table 1 is broken down by age. You can see that 50-64 is 42 hours/week and 65+ is over 47hrs/week. That's what skewing the average. The US is an aging population and any good statistical averages will be affected by that.