Typical U.S. TV Household Now Gets 130-Plus Channels
Americans are getting more channels — and they’re watching more TV than ever.
In 2008, the number of channels available in the average U.S. TV household was 130.1, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s more than double 2000, when the average was 61.4. In a given week, the average household tuned to 17.8 channels, or 14% of the 130.1 available, for at least 10 minutes.
Weekly viewing was up 40 minutes year over year, with the average household tuning in for 58 hours and 27 minutes per week last year.
Total U.S. TV households now number 114.5 million as of the end of 2008, up 1.5% from 112.8 million in 2007, Nielsen reported. (A PDF of the Television Audience 2008 report is available here.)
Other stats:
* Satellite TV households received an average of 176.6 channels with 19.9 channels tuned per week; while digital cable households had an average of 165.0 channels with 20.5 channels tuned per week.
* The number of TVs per household increased, to 2.86 in 2008 from 2.83 — with 54% of all households now owning three or more TV sets.
* DVR households increased to 28.0 million in 2008, up from 21.0 million the year before.
smei commented:
The TV is on in american households for 58 hours per week! That's so upsetting I don't even know where to begin...8 + hours per day every day of the week.
DM commented:
The 14% statistic is why I would like an a la carte distribution system put into place. If 86% of available bundled channels are not consistently being watched then why am I paying to have those channels available? The relative cost of a single channel or smaller bundle would need to increase by roughly six times for an a la carte model to be counter-productive for cost savings.