Nielsen: Live TV Use Continues To Shrink

Time spent watching live TV dropped as the use of smart phones continues to grow, according to a new report from Nielsen.

Nielsen found that live TV use among adults fell to 4 hours and 36 minutes per day in the second quarter from 4:48 a year ago, according to the new cross-platform report. Time-shifted viewing rose to 31 minutes per day from 27 minutes a year ago.

Meanwhile, the use of smart phones grew to 1:25 from 1:04 a day. That’s up significantly from 2012, when smart phone use was just 48 minutes per day, according to Nielsen.

“Today, content is delivered and consumed through competing delivery platforms, networks and screens. Never before have we seen this level of fragmentation and yet, the sum total of media consumed is growing” Dounia Turrill, senior VP, insights at Nielsen, said in the report. “In fact, year over year among the younger 18-34 demo media consumption has grown four percent overall, two percent among Hispanics, eight percent among Blacks, and ten percent among Asians.”

Time spent viewing on TV screens dropped by 2% in the second quarter from a year ago among 18-34 year olds, while digital video viewing increased 53%. With 35 to 49 year olds, TV screen viewing fell 1% and digital video viewing rose 80%. Even among those in the 50 to 64 year old age group, TV screen viewing fell 2% and digital video viewing increased 60%.

Nielsen found that the number of broadcast-only homes rose to 12 million from 10.9 million a year ago. Homes with wired cable fell to 54.1 million from 56.6 million and satellite homes fell to 34.4 million from 35.2 million. Telco homes rose to 12.4 million from 10.9 million. There were more than 2 million broadband only homes. The year-ago number was unavailable.

Nielsen said there were 6.1 million homes with broadband and broadcast access, up from 5.3 million a year ago. The number of broadcast homes with no broadband also rose to 6.2 million from 5.9 million. There were 80.5 million homes with cable and broadband access and 20.1 million homes with cable and no broadband, down from 21.8 million.

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.