TV Sourcing and Viewing Continues to Change

According to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report, Americans spend more than 33 hours per week watching video across the screens, but how they're consuming content, traditional TV and otherwise, is changing.

Consumers are increasingly making Internet connectivity a priority; 75.3% pay for broadband Internet (up from 70.9% last year):

• 90.4% pay for cable, telephone company-provided TV or satellite
• Homes with both paid TV and broadband increased 5.5% since last year

Consumers are seeking out the subscription service that makes the most sense for them, says the report. The number of homes subscribing to wired cable has decreased 4.1% in the past year at the same time that telephone company-provided (telco) and satellite TV have seen increases of 21.1% and 2.1%, respectively.

Nearly a million more homes are subscribing to broadband while skipping a traditional paid TV subscription. There are 5.1 million broadcast-only/broadband homes, and though broadcast only/broadband homes comprise a smaller subscriber group; the number of these homes has increased by 22.8% since Q3 2010.

Whether they're cord-cutters or former broadcast-only homes that upgraded to Internet service, these homes represent a growing group of U.S. consumers. Interestingly, roughly the same percentage of consumers in broadcast-only/broadband homes watch traditional TV, stream or use the Internet as in all cross-platform homes; the difference between these groups falls to time spent on these activities. Even broadcast-only/broadband homes spend the majority of their video time watching traditional TV: 122.6 minutes, compared to 11.2 for streaming on average each day.

(Source: The Center for Media Research, 03/02/12)