Nielsen: Overall Video and TV Viewing Grows

But declines seen in teen and young adult TV viewing between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/9/2012 4:25:24 PM

A new report from Nielsen shows that overall live and time-shifted TV viewing increased between the third quarter of 2010 and the third quarter of 2011 by about 2 hours and 36 minutes each month to 157 hours and 36 minutes a month in the third quarter of 2011.

While the data also shows increases in live TV viewing for people aged two and older, viewing among teens and young adults fell.

Monthly viewing of linear TV by kids aged 2 to 11 grew from 116 hours and 17 minutes in Q3 2010 to 116 hours and 46 minutes in the Q3 2011, teens aged 12 to 17 viewing fell from 113 hours and 52 minutes in Q3 2010 to 109 hours and 15 in Q3 2011.

Over the same period, live TV viewing by 18 to 25 year olds also declined from 116 hours and 49 minutes in Q3 2010 to 113 hours and 46 minutes in Q3 2011 and young adults 25 to 34 slumped from 130 hours and 27 minutes to 125 hours and 55 minutes.

Time-shifted TV viewing increased among kids aged 2 to 11, teens 12 to 17 and young adults aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 34, but was not enough to maintain viewing levels for the teen and young adult demos.

Overall viewing from linear and time-shifted viewing grew for kids from 123 hours and 46 minutes in Q3 2010 to 125 hours and 57 minutes in Q3 2011, but declined from 120 hours and 57 minutes to 116 hours and 45 minutes for teens aged 12 to 17 in the same time period.

Total linear and time-shifted viewing also declined from 123 hours and 44 minutes in Q3 of 2010 for those aged 18 to 24 to 121 hours and 40 minutes in Q3 of 2011. For those aged 25 to 34 it dropped from 143 hours and 14 minutes to 139 hours and 28 minutes.

Older demos, meanwhile, increase their viewing, which pushed overall figures higher for those aged two and older.

Declining viewing by younger demos is likely to spark, once again, debates over young people turning way from TV and that fact was highlighted in a major New York Times article about the newest Nielsen report.

But in general, TV viewing has increased across most individual demos -- young and old -- during the last decade. Very notably, the 2011 viewing figures were still higher for kids, teens and young adults aged 18 to 24 than they had been in 2008, which is the most recent comparable data from the Nielsen cross media reports.

A B&C review of earlier data showed that total linear and time-shifted kids viewing has increased by 11 hours and 58 minutes since the third quarter of 2008. Similarly total TV viewing by teens aged 12 to 17 increased by 51 minutes and those 18 to 24 increased by eight hours and 28 minutes.

Monthly linear TV and time-shifted viewing did however decline by three hours and 36 minutes for those aged 25 to 34.

Some of that decline may be explained by the fact that the third quarter of 2008 saw a hotly contested presidential race and the 2008 Olympics while the summer of 2011 lacked major events to drive spikes in usage.

Even so, most other demos also increased their live TV viewing during this period, with only the teen 12 to 17 demo and young adult 25 to 34 demo showing declines in live TV viewing between Q3 2008 and Q3 2011.

In the combined live and time-shifted viewing figures, only the 25 to 34 demo declined between 2008 and the third quarter of 2011.

Linear TV viewing for people aged two and older also increased 4 hours and 16 minutes during that three year period. Total linear and time-shifted viewing increased by eight hours and 35 minutes.

It is worth stressing that the increases in TV viewing between 2008 to 2011 period came as online video usage skyrocketed and ownership of smart phones and tablets increased significantly.

Nielsen data notes that between Q3 2008 and Q3 2011 the number of users watching video on the internet increased by 21.7% and the time spent watching online video grew by 79.5%. Likewise the number of users watching video on a mobile phone grew by 205.7% and the time spent on mobile video grew by 19.8%.

Overall the Nielsen data shows a 22.8% increase in the number of broadcast homes with a broadband connection between 2008 and 2011 to 5.1 million homes, or about 4.5% of all homes.

But this growth seems to be driven largely by growing penetration of broadband service and the total number of multichannel homes as not declined, with about 90% of all homes paying for content.

Currently about 5.1% of all homes get their TV exclusively over the air but do not have a broadband connection.