TV watching is dying. And the iPhone and other devices may be the culprit.
Young adults are spending more time on their smartphones and other devices and less time watching their television sets, The Associated Press writes.
Is it time to rescue the television, a fixture in homes since the 1940s?
The conventional wisdom has been that smartphones and tablets are not threatening to the boob tube — that they re merely second screens, something for people to look at while they watched television.
But it appears that in the battle for our attention, the devices are winning, at least with the 18-to-30 set, according to a new report out Thursday from Nielsen. We re not only dividing our attention; we are not turning the set on.
Some data:
- . That s how much the number of 18-to-34-year-olds who used a smartphone, tablet or TV-connected device like a streaming box rose in May compared to a year earlier.
- That s how much the number fell of those who watch the telly, listened to a radio or used a computer in the same age group.
TV viewing alone in that age group fell by 10 percent.
Glenn Enoch, Nielsen s senior vice president of audience insights, told the AP:
It s pretty clear the increased use of mobile devices is having some effect on the system as a whole.
It is hard to say what this means for TV content. Notably, the Nielsen report does not break out streaming TV on devices.
But our habits are changing. In 1949, people watched TV each day on average 4 hours and 35 minutes. That peaked to 8 hours and 55 minutes in 2009-2010.
Ever since, viewership has fallen. Now, daily TV watching is on average 8 hours and 13 minutes.
That s still a lot of time. But maybe gathering around the TV set is increasingly something elders do, not the young.
Above: Flat-screen TV (BANG archives).
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