TV Viewing Habits

Here's the inside scoop on Viewership, Telvision-style:

It’s a 118+ channel world out there in the average television household, according to a new study from The Nielsen Company. And the numbers suggest that the more channels people have, the more they watch.

The number of television channels that the average U.S. home receives has now reached a record high of 118.6 TV channels. This and other television trends were released in a report from The Nielsen Company that highlights population, television ownership and advertising trends in the United States.

Highlights from this Nielsen study include:

* In 2007, the average U.S. home received 118.6 channels.

* As the number of channels available to a household increases, so does the number of channels tuned. In 2007, the average household tuned to 16 or13% of the 118.6 channels available for at least 10 minutes per week.

* General dramas dominate the English language broadcast networks program lineups, comprising 40% (67 of 168) of the primetime programs, an increase of seven programs from last year. Variety programs make up 23% of English language network prime time programs.

* When Spanish language networks are included general dramas still dominate with 38% (92 of 243) of the total. Variety programs make up 23% (56 of 243) of the total Spanish and English network programs. But, there are more “Other” type programs (34) than situation comedies (33).

* African Americans continue to watch more television than the total U.S. composite while Hispanics watch less. Total viewing among all households was 31 hours and 55 minutes per week while that figure was 45 hours and 22 minutes in African American households and 27 hours and 13 minutes in Hispanic households.

* Viewing in African American households is more likely to be to ad-supported cable television (62%) than broadcast network (40%) while Hispanic households watch more broadcast network (51%) than ad-supported cable (46%). The total composite U.S. household tips toward ad-supported cable (58%) compared to broadcast network (40%)

* The 30-second commercial is still the television advertising standard in primetime, accounting for 60% of all commercial units on English and Spanish language broadcast networks.

Number of Channels Available

In 2007, the average home received 118.6 channels. The percentage of homes receiving 100+ channels stands at 58% with 26% receiving between 60 and 99 channels. Nielsen found that the average television household in the U.S. receives 17 broadcast TV stations. On average, 44% receive up to 19 broadcast stations an additional 21% of homes receive up to 19 or more broadcast stations. An additional 28% receive between 20-29 broadcast stations.

As the number of channels available to a household increased, so did the number of channels tuned, although the percentage of available channels actually viewed decreased. In 2007, the average household tuned to 16 (or 13%) of the 118.6 channels for at least 10 minutes during the week.

Broadcast Network Programming Trends

This year, Nielsen included programs from 11 broadcast networks, including English and Spanish language broadcast networks’ (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, ION, MNT, Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, and TV Azteca ) schedules to profile the number of programs, types of programs (situation comedies, dramas, etc.) and hours in each schedule.

General dramas dominate the prime time lineups, comprising 38% (92 of 243) of the programs. The number of Variety programs has reached 56. Situation Comedies make up 14% with 33 of the 243 total programs.

Types of Primetime Programs on English and Spanish Language Broadcast Networks

Trends in Broadcast Network Commercials

The 30-second commercial is still the television advertising standard in primetime, accounting for 55% of all units. The 15-second commercial continues to be an important component in advertising. In English language network daytime television the 15-second commercial outpaces 30-second commercials. Fifteen-second units still account for the largest percentage of daytime commercials at 53% of English language and 42% of total English and Spanish language combined. The number of commercial minutes aired increased in both daytime and primetime for both English only and English and Spanish language combined. In primetime, 30-second and 15-second units make up 93% of all commercials. Together, 15s and 30s account for 94% of the total daytime commercials.

Other Relevant TV Facts from the Nielsen Study:

* The average U.S. TV home has 2.5 people and 2.8 television sets.
* 31% of U.S. TV homes have Digital Cable.
* 61% of homes have wired cable hook-ups (down from a high of 68% in 2000) and 27% have satellite or specialized antenna systems to receive television signals, up from 19% in 2005.
* 82% of U.S homes have more than one television sets at home.
* 87% of U.S. homes have a DVD player, with that technology overtaking VCRs which are in 79% of households.

(source: The Nielsen Company www.nielsen.com. )

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