Nielsen’s New Audience Report Reveals TV Is Still the Most Used Medium Among Adults
Despite industry chatter about online video overcoming TV, Nielsen’s new Audience Report proves that TV is still the preferred medium among American adults.
The report shows that, on average, adults spend about 36 hours per week watching TV– far more time than they spend listening to the radio or on their PCs, smartphones or tablets, as you can see in the graph below. Smartphone usage maxed out at about just 7 hours per week on average among adults.
However, even with this good news for the TV industry, the report does show some concerning data.
In an article reviewing the report, the WSJ notes that “adults spent an average of 4 hours and 55 minutes per day watching live TV for the first quarter, down from 5 hours and 10 minutes last year. Smartphone usage, conversely, has continued to increase: 1 hour and 27 minutes per day in the first quarter, up from 1 hour and 12 minutes, according to Nielsen.”
The WSJ article also points out that Glenn Enoch, senior vice president of audience insights at Nielsen, notes in the quarterly audience report that there are a few limitations to the study.
One of these limitations is the fact that “the measurement of ‘smartphone video’ encompasses apps specifically designed for video (like YouTube) while apps where video is not the primary focus (CNN, Weather Channel, Facebook) were not included.”
So, while clearly all data needs to be taken with grain of salt, and these trends could clearly lead to big changes in the near future, TV is still most certainly King for now.
Check out more details from the Nielsen Audience Report in the WSJ‘s breakdown:
Source: Nielsen via The Wall Street Journal