Wednesday, December 24, 2008

TV Viewing Habits


An interesting study released this week jumps to some dangerous conclusions based on assumptions. Or as the financial world likes to say in their legal disclaimers, "Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results."

They say that as we get older we watch more Television. To which, I say, be careful. I don't think that they are taking the rapidly changing technology and the media habits created by the tech into as much consideration as they should.

I look at real life examples. My wife watches a little less TV than she did 10 years ago. I watch a lot less. My kids watch significantly less than I did when I was their age. Anyway, here's the story from Mediaweek, but don't bank on their predictions.

Study: Young People Watch Less TV

The older you get, the more you watch, report says

Dec 22, 2008

-By Paul Bond, THR.com


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Young Americans just aren't watching TV like they used to.

Put another way, the older you get, the more you watch, according to a new report from Deloitte indicating that Millennials, the generation of 14- to 25-year-olds, watch just 10.5 hours of TV a week.

That compares to 15.1 hours for those belonging to Generation X (ages 26-42), 19.2 hours for Baby Boomers (43-61) and 21.5 hours for Matures (62-75).

Lest one assume Millennials are shunning broadcast and cable in favor of watching DVDs on their TV screens -- they're not. They spend less time watching DVDs of movies and TV shows on television sets, 4.8 hours a week, than do Gen Xers.

They are, though, spending more time watching DVDs on a computer -- 1.9 hours a week -- than any other age group.

But while Millennials are watching the least amount of TV, they are spending the most time with media in general, making that up with video games, music and the Internet.

Just don't expect them to spend too much time worrying about such things as news and current events, according to the Deloitte study dubbed "The State of the Media Democracy."

TV does remain the most influential advertising medium going, followed by magazines, the Internet, newspapers, radio and billboards.

Social networking sites are considered separate from the rest of the Internet, and they are the seventh-most influential place to advertise, followed by in-theater ads, DVDs, blogs (again, distinct from the Internet), video games, mobile phones and virtual worlds.

Other nuggets from the study are that Gen Xers are driving DVR usage and to a lesser degree video game usage, as that medium, once frowned on by parents, is more recently being used for "family time."

And the older you get, the less time you spend in movie theaters. Millennials spend an average of 1.8 hours a week at the movies, while it's just one hour for Gen Xers, 0.9 hours for Boomers and 0.7 hours for Matures.

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