Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Next Year, People Will Spend More Time Online Than They Will Watching TV. That's a First. (recode.net)

Posted by msmash on from the times-they-are-changin' dept.

Rani Molla, writing for Recode: It's finally happening: Next year, people around the world will spend more time online than they do watching TV, according to new data from measurement company Zenith. In 2019, people are expected to spend an average of 170.6 minutes each day on online activities like watching videos on YouTube, sharing photos on Facebook and shopping on Amazon. They'll spend slightly less time -- 170.3 minutes -- watching TV. The global transition from TV to internet as the main entertainment medium was a long time coming, but it also happened faster than expected. Last year, Zenith predicted that TV would still be more popular in 2019 but has since revised its estimates.

10 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. But I watch TV online... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not sure that "cord cutters" are properly tracked by these metrics.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:But I watch TV online... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2

      I just saw a youtube video with one of my favorite TV stars- a man who found success first in Canadian television, then selling his show to American PBS networks, that did 15 seasons and a movie.

      He's now producing new content in the character online, and his sons have started a Twitch channel in which they show an episode and give additional director's style commentary interactive with a chat window.

      In the interview with network news, this actor/producer/creator said he'd never touch TV again, and had the web been well developed as it is now back in 1990 when he started, his show would never have been seen on TV at all.

      It isn't just viewers who are fed up with the big business that advertising-and-tax-supported-television brings with it. It's the content creators.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  2. Does both at the same time by Zorro · · Score: 2

    Multitasking, look it up.

  3. Content owners are same for both by OffTheLip · · Score: 2

    Since much of TV is owned by large internet providers I don't see much of a need to separate "online" from "tv".

  4. Don't Worry by Comboman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't Worry. Just because people aren't watching TV, doesn't mean they're doing anything useful or god forbid actually learning something. They've just replaced one passive, intellectually hollow activity for another. Soap operas and sitcoms have been replaced by social media and Amazon shopping.

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
  5. How do you even count this? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do you even count this?

    Is watching Amazon video on the PC "TV"? On your phone?

    Old sitcoms on YouTube?

  6. Definition of "TV" by DogDude · · Score: 2

    I define "watching TV" as staring at a screen, getting stupider. People are just staring at different screens. They're still getting just as stupid, though.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  7. Im not sure you can really differentiate the two by voss · · Score: 2

    People watch their favorite programs on netflix or amazon is that counted as tv watching or being online?
    People can watch live channels of both tv and radio online. When someone watches streaming tv on their phone
    does that count being online , watching tv, or being on your phone?

  8. The Couch Potato Evolved Into the Mouse Potato by imperious_rex · · Score: 2

    Same (in)activity, different venue. Is anybody really surprised by this? People are very well trained to be consumers, not producers. For most people, producing something (let alone something of value) is WORK not leisure.

  9. No longer a relevant measure by trevc · · Score: 3

    I don't think 'how long you spend online' is a valid measurement anymore. We no longer use dial-up to connect to the internet. With phones and tablets, home automation and so-on we are 'online' 24x7.