Average U.S. homes have more TV sets than people
Last Updated Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:13:12 EDT
Television sets now outnumber people in the typical U.S. home, according to Neilsen Media Research.
Statistically, there are 2.73 TV sets and 2.55 people in the average home, the researchers said. And while no tipping point day could be calculated, the threshold was crossed sometime in the past two years.
Half of U.S. homes have three or more TVs, and only 19 per cent have just one, Nielsen said.
In 1975, 57 per cent of homes had only a single set and only 11 per cent had three or more.
"It's really just a matter of where your living takes place, what rooms you tend to spend your time in," said Rick Melen, who has three television sets in the Somers, N.Y., home he shares with his wife. "Other appliances you can move from room to room, But if you have cable, you can't move a television."
All of these extra sets have led to an increase in the amount of time Americans spend watching television.
According to Neilsen, the average person watches four hours, 35 minutes of television each day, a new high.
The study does not include Canadian viewing habits but a somewhat different study released by Statistics Canada this summer suggests we may not watch as much television as our neighbours to the south.
Canadians watch an average of two hours and six minutes of television a day, according to the Overview of the Time Use of Canadians released in July 2006. New Brunswickers watch the most TV (2.5 hours), while Albertans watch the least (1.9 hours).
While less than half the amount Neilsen says Americans watch, the studies differ in methodology. Neilsen's research is based on calculations from monitoring the television sets in conjunction with interviews so it is able to determine that in the average American home the television set is turned on for eight hours, 14 minutes a day.
The Statistics Canada study, on the other hand, is conducted solely through interviews with participants.
The Neilsen study also showed a rise in the viewing habits of teenagers. Teens had been watching less television in recent years, a trend blamed on the rise of other electronic devices such as MP3 players, computers and video game systems.
But Neilsen reported a three per cent increase last year, with a six per cent increase in viewing among teenage girls.
With files from the Associated Press
