This week the Nielsen company reported that the number of US households with a television set have actually decreased by over a million to last year; this marks the first declined in household TV since 1992. Does this mean Americans are watching less TV or are they shifting to an online medium? Turns out that people are spending less money on buying television and more on buying personal computers and online TV channels like Hulu and Netflix.
Nielsen data demonstrates that consumers are viewing more video content across all platforms—rather than replacing one medium with another. However, a small subset of younger, urban consumers are going without paid TV subscriptions. Long-term effects of this are unclear, as it’s undetermined if this is also an economic issue, with these individuals entering the TV marketplace once they have the means, or the beginning of a larger shift to viewing online and on mobile devices.
Nielsen also states that TV viewing has increases, but suggests that more people are shifting their “TV viewing” online and non-television devices. I’ve never been a fan of watching TV nor do I have the time. Thus, this make a good point why buy more TV’s and pay for cable services when you can watch TV anywhere anytime with your mobile device, laptop and iPAD. Why not save the money when other multi-media devices can offer you more?
If you had to to make a choice would you prefer watching TV on a big screen TV or on your personal computer or iPAD? What’s the difference?
