TV viewing is actually rising Americans spend more
hours in front the tube
By Kevin Downey

Everyone knows that TV viewership has taken a big hit because of other media competing for viewers’ attention, especially the internet. Too bad it's not true. TV viewership is actually up over the past four years, according to new research from Turner Broadcasting, and it’s been climbing over the very same years that internet penetration has grown. People may be using the internet more, but they’re also turning on their TVs more. And they’re watching more broadcast as well as more cable. Indeed, while the presumption has long been that broadcast is suffering at the hands of cable, the reality is that they’re both doing well. “People are watching more television than ever before,” says Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer at Turner. He notes that while his analysis focuses on a comparison of viewing this year to 2001, the average amount of time people spend watching TV has steadily been increasing. “What’s happening is that the total amount of television viewing keeps going up, despite what other media types say or what people believe or what people tell you when you ask them in a survey.” In the just-concluded broadcast season the networks halted audience erosion in the 18-49 demographic on a season-to-season basis for the first time in as long as most people can remember. Among households broadcast's share stayed the same while cable rose. According to Turner, the average person watched 30.7 hours of television each week in second quarter through June 19, up 10 percent from 27.9 hours four years earlier. Viewing in the highly sought-after 18-34 demographic in that timeframe increased to 26.3 hours, up from 24.3 hours. Adults 35-49 watched 31.8 hours compared to 28.3 hours in second quarter 2001. Viewing among people 50 years or older jumped to nearly 40 hours in an average week, from 36.3 hours. Within the growing television audience, the networks this past season, on the strength of programs such as ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” CBS’s “CSI” and Fox’s “American Idol,” lost a scant 264,000 primetime viewers in the 18-49 demographic. That was essentially flat at down only 1 percent, compared to a 6 percent loss of 1.33 million viewers a season earlier. At the same time, cable TV’s 18-49 audience was up 1.2 million people over last season. That came on top of an increase of 580,000 adults 18-49 the previous season. Wakshlag attributes cable’s growth and the broadcast networks’ relatively good performance to more and better programming to keep viewers tuning in. “It’s because there are more choices, more options, more [television sets] and people are simply turning on the television more than ever before,” he says. “There has been an aggressive campaign to try to get advertisers to move money away from television. Other media are claiming there are losses. But the only data they’ve ever been able to show is that people think they are watching less television, but we know they’re not.” This summer, in the first three weeks since the regular broadcast season ended in late May, cable TV has averaged about 60 percent share of the primetime household audience, up from roughly 57 percent the same time last year. The network share has slightly dipped to about 34 percent from nearly 35 percent. Wakshlag says cable TV is off to a strong summer because of original programs like FX’s “The Shield” and TNT’s “The Closer.” “This is an ongoing trend,” he says. “You have larger cable networks investing the money they’ve been making in big-time original programming. And there has been a pretty good batting average for cable hits in the past few years.”

June 28, 2005 © 2005 Media Life
-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.