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TV taking more of our time

The amount of television Americans are watching increased again last season, according to Nielsen Media Research.

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published September 30, 2005

Hard to say if it's better programming or better couches, but whatever the reason, Americans this past television season watched more TV than ever, averaging 8 hours 11 minutes per day per household, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Nielsen, the company that gauges television ratings for the industry, reported Thursday the results of the 2004-2005 season, which concluded in May. According to the study, Americans watched 2.7 percent more TV last season than the year before, and 12.5 percent more than 10 years ago. The volume of TV consumed per household was the most since Nielsen began measuring viewership in 1950.

Household viewership hours are calculated not just by how many hours a television is on, but also how many people are watching. The household figure also allows for multiple televisions within the home, Nielsen spokeswoman Karen Gyimesi said. The average person watched about 4 hours 32 minutes of television per day, up from 4 hours 25 minutes last year.

Gyimesi said viewership hours have risen consistently in the past 55 years. In the 1949-1950 season, the average household watched 4 hours 35 minutes per day.

"Even when people are saying we're going more to other sources, like computers, we're seeing that they are watching more television," Gyimesi said.

The news isn't as good for Washington, D.C., advocacy group TV-Turnoff Network, which encourages families to turn off the tube and get active. According to the "facts and figures about our TV habit" compiled by the group, television undermines family life, harms children and hampers education, promotes obesity and violence, squelches political awareness, and promotes overconsumption.

TV-Turnoff executive director Frank Vespe said TV wins viewers because of its own relentless promotion, its ubiquitous presence and because it's easier to watch TV than do anything else.

"It demands nothing from you," he said. "We're watching to turn our brains off."

Vespe urged families to think about their viewing habits and make plans to do other things as a family, rather than letting TV become the fallback.

Four hours per day, times seven days, is more than an entire extra day per week to do something, Vespe said."

Still, he draws hope from recent studies showing people are becoming more concerned about sedentary lifestyles and the impact of childhood obesity.

"It's not all gloom and doom," he said.

But according to the Nielsen report, the rise in viewership appears to be continuing this season. Americans watched more this past summer than the previous summer, and the prime-time viewing audience in the new season's premiere week was 6 percent higher this month than in September 2004, with an average of 109-million viewers each night.

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:35:17]