By Frank MacekThe death of television has been prematurely reported.
Nielsen's latest first quarter report of three screens use: television, Internet and mobile - show all three INCREASING during the first quarter of 2009.
The study shows that television is still the dominant choice for Americans who watch video with a whopping 99% of the video watched still being viewed a traditional TV screen.
In addition, TV usage continues at an all-time high with 153 hours being watched per month by each of us. That's an INCREASE of 1.2% over 2008. Of all demographics, adults age 17 to 24 are the only ones showing signs of using DVRs and online video about the same amount of time. The reports shows they time shifted television about 5 hrs, 47 minutes each month and video on the Internet 5 hrs, 3 minutes.
Also during the first quarter, the growth of online video was driven by both strong brand marketing and large media events including the Presidential inauguration, the Super Bowl and March Madness. About 131 million Americans average three hours of video online each month at home.
Teens aged 13 to 17 continue to be avid viewers of mobile video. They report viewing an average of 6.5 hours of video on their mobile phone each month.
Overall, mobile viewing is up 52% from 2008.
So at least at this time, it doesn't seem traditional television needs to worry much. So, we'll likely be around for a long time to come. It's not time to panic and focus all of our resources on the web, at the expense of television - still our core product.
To download the complete report: CLICK HERE
Source: Nielsen
