Live TV Use Dropped to 4:55 a Day in 1Q

The amount of time adults spent watching live TV fell to 4 hours and 55 minutes per day in the first quarter from 5 hours and 10 minutes a year ago.

Time spent watching time-shifted TV rose to 35 minutes from 34 minutes.

The big gainer is in smart phone use, which increased to 1 hour and 27 minutes from 1 hour and 12 minutes. Time spent using the Internet on a computer was unchanged at 1 hour and seven minutes.

The figures come from Nielsen in its most recent Total Audience report.

In the average week, TV reached 209.4 million people who spend an average of 2,487 minutes watching. PC Video reaches 86.4 million people who watch 250 minutes per week. Smartphone video reached 88.6 million people, who watch 38 minutes per week.

The number of broadcast only homes rose to 12.5 million from 11.6 million. Wired cable homes fell to 52.7 million from 55 million. Telco home rose to 13.1 million from 12.1 million. Satellite homes were flat with 34.6 million homes compared to 34.9 million. 

Broadband only homes jumped to 3 million homes from 1.6 million a year ago.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.