Now Good News for TV: Daily Viewing Time Continues to Rise

 

More media usage numbers from Nielsen show U.S. TV viewers increased their consumption again last year, setting another record for time watched.  According to the data, the average U.S. viewer watched 4 hours and 49 minutes of television per day during the 2008-2009 season, up 1.4% or 4 minutes from the previous season and up 20% in the last ten years.

That’s the per person average, the average household watches 8 hours and 21 minutes of television per day.  And since Nielsen has been tracking this data since nearly forever, we know that the average household viewing back in 1950 was about half as much: 4 hours and 35 minutes.  Of course, they didn’t have 500 channels!

The increase is in non-prime-time viewing: Prime-time numbers have stayed pretty much the same for years at about 1 hour and 12 minutes.  Nielsen credits much of the increase to more TVs, more channels, and the ability to record via DVR.

It seems to follow that the more television people are watching, the more commercials they see.  The numbers include live viewing plus seven days of DVR playback,  but don’t think everyone’s skipping commercials.  The Ad-ology Research Advertising’s Impact in a Soft Economy survey from earlier this year showed that only 28% of consumers record television shows to fast forward through commercials.

So the economy seems to be slightly better, marketing budgets seem to be loosening up, and people are tuning in.  So get out there and sell some advertising!

(Nielsen data via MediaPost.com.  Also check out our previously reported good news for radio here and here.)