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You Are Still Watching a Staggering Amount Of TV Every Day (recode.net)
Peter Kafka, reporting for Recode:TV! It's cooked! Toast! Doneso. Ready for the fork. Except not yet, because Americans are still watching a ton of TV, every day. For some of them, it's the equivalent of a full-time job. The average American watches an astonishing 4.5 hours of TV a day, according to a new report from Nielsen. Add in DVR time, and that number gets up to 5 hours a day. That usage is shrinking over time -- a couple of years ago, Americans were averaging five hours and twenty-three minutes a day.Nielsen's data also shows that people are now consuming more content on their smartphone devices than ever. Compared to just 47 minutes usage in 2014, it is now up to one hour and 39 minutes.
In before this guy posts:
http://www.theonion.com/article/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel-429
What the heck does this have to do with the Digital Equipment Corporation?
The fact of the matter is that they have been struggling for years to keep pace with the barrage of new video consumption choices Americans have. They still don't have a handle on it. And there are many in the broadcast/cable industry who uphold they never really had a good grasp (Those diaries! seriously...?) of who was watching what. Their customers are the broadcasters, not, say YouTube channels or Twitch feeds, so they will always have that bias...
^^^^^ Yep, It's that guy ^^^^^^
http://www.theonion.com/articl...
We were waiting for you.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
If I'm lucky, I have enough downtime to actually sit and watch a whole hour a day, and that's while I'm eating dinner. If I didn't have a DVR, it wouldn't even be that much. Where is it that anyone these days hase 4.5 hours of free time to sit in front of a television?
For me to average even an hour a night would take some planning in itself. I've read before that these numbers are seriously skewed by the elderly (especially in nursing homes), hospital rooms, and the unemployed. If these groups were compensated for I wonder what the average would truly be.
I pretty much have no idea what's going on in the world of media. I can't even name one movie that's in theatres. And I fucking LOVE IT.
The jokes on you. Movie theaters went into decline about 10 years ago when the media companies figured out how to beam information straight into peoples brains. The last mainstream megaplex theatre closed down about 5 years ago, but you can still find some operating as museums where you can take the kids to experience "talkies" like your parents used to do.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I would be really interesting to see some sort of demographic break down on those TV numbers regarding things like income level, geographical location, employment, etc. I have a gut feeling that TV viewing has gone up in some demographics and down in others. Honestly I don't even know many people who watch more than 4.5 hours of TV a week much less a day. But most of my friends play video games instead of watch tv so it's not like we have any stones to throw about sitting on the couch to much.
Those assholes came to my door once asking if I would like to be a "Nielsen" household. They went over the details, and even offered money for the bother.
Let me tell you, whatever they offer, it is not worth it. They come in and connect a comm closet full of equipment to your TV so they can intercept whatever video is being fed to your TV. That would be fine, except their equipment causes all kinds of compatibility issues. They also insist on installing their software on any PC you watch streaming services on. That would also be fine, except their software also collects your non-media browsing habits, and has a keylogger so I can only assume they steal your passwords as well (I only installed their SW in a virtual machine).
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I told these guys that I rarely watch TV. Perhaps once every couple of weeks when I'm too tired to do something more valuable with my time.
If you don't watch TV for 24 hours, the phone rings. If you don't watch TV for 48 hours, the phone rings every 30 minutes until you answer. They harass you CONSTANTLY to watch more TV. After 5 days they actually send someone to your home to find out why you're not watching TV.
When you _are_ watching TV, you have to hit control buttons on their box every half an hour or so, or the harassment increases.
After about 2 weeks I called them up and told them to come get their shit off my front porch.
TV, YouTube, whatever. I watch plenty and I'm no better.
I do pay taxes though, I'm just not an executive at work nor a patriarch of a large family, so I can just do whatever after work. Tonight I'm writing the second half of a presentation for a local game dev enthusiast group that meets up once a month. Other times I spend it drawing, writing, 3d modeling, or programming. In any case, it's important to me that I have this time, because I can use it to grow and maintain my skills no matter what I do at work, or just relax if I need to. You know, normal well-adjusted human stuff.
Do they count "Doing something else but have the TV on in the background"?
I could have watched TV last night, but instead I shot nazi zombies. This is how TV dies. One zombie at a time.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
It depends how they actually count the hours too. If it just counts time when the TV is on, but people may or may not be in the room the number is going to be greatly inflated compared to hours of TV people actively watched. I know lots of people who leave the TV on all day even as they go about their business just to have some background noise in the house. Personally I've never seen the appeal, but it's apparently comforting to people.
DVR hours should count much more since they presumably represent someone sitting down and selecting a show to watch. But even then I've seen plenty of cases where the TV is left on while someone reads Facebook or plays a game or does some paperwork.
I read the internet for the articles.
So, out of six people, one watches all the time, and the other NINE watch a bit? Seriously, out of six people, the one + nine watch it??
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
..or maybe they graduated highschool and it takes more than crappy soap operas to entertain them. Face it, a huge percentage of today's tv now uses that model. It's all about feelings and who's doing who. There's nothing smug about moving on from highschool drama.