A Sure Bet: Americans Will Watch TV and Surf the Internet No Matter What

There is one thing I can pretty much guarantee you: come hell or high water, Americans will continue to watch alot of TV and spend alot of time surfing the internet. 

In fact Nielsen Media Reseach today came out with a study showing that there are now more TVs than people in the average American home: 2.73 TVs vs. 2.55 people.  More:

In the average home, a television set is turned on for more than a third of the day – eight hours, 14 minutes, Nielsen said.  That’s an hour more than it was a decade ago. 

The average person watches four hours, 35 minutes of television each day, Nielsen added.

While people are watching more television, ratings for the big broadcast networks have declined steadily.  That’s a function of the greater number of channel choices available in each home, the company said. 

TV, from an economic standpoint, is now a necessity or what I’ve been calling a consumer staple – even in a recession people will continue to pay for TV.  The same thing applies, I believe, to the internet. 

Play TV and internet with DirectTV (NYSE: DTV, $18.91, Thursday Sept. 21, Close), the largest satellite TV provider with 15.5 million subscribers, Echostar (NASDAQ: DISH, $31.61, Thursday Sept. 21, Close), the other satellite TV provider (Dish Network) with 12.5 million subscribers, and Comcast (NYSE: CMCSA, $35.20, Thursday Sept. 21, Close), the largest cable TV provider with 21 million subscribers plus 8 million high speed internet subscribers (at the end of 2005). 

Similar Posts