Comments on: The United States Of Television: More TV Sets Than People

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:53:36 +0000

I realize that you’re probably not going to get at this kind of data, but: With that number of sets per household, not all of them are likely to get their signal from the same source. So it would be more interesting to see the percentage of viewing that takes place on OTA sets, rather than just the percentage of OTA homes.

By: ABCFanatic

ABCFanatic — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:11:29 +0000

People are going to be extinct

and TV will replace people

By: Nightstar

Nightstar — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:58:53 +0000

I guess I’m below average by these stats (or above, depending on POV). I have 2 sets… one is a paper weight in the garage (doesn’t work) and the other is well past legal drinking age (26 years and counting) and is not HDTV ready (DVD and VCR talk to it just fine, though). What shows I do watch I view either on the show’s website (when available) or buy season DVD packs after research and conversations with folks I know who share my viewing tastes.

By: thedemonhog

thedemonhog — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:15:55 +0000

Does this include television sets that are not hooked up?

By: Corey3rd

Corey3rd — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:44:28 +0000

people still have home videos. they need the vcr to see their wedding

By: romo

romo — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:31:32 +0000

Will TV become like the cylons & try & take over now ?

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:36:08 +0000

squiggle, over the air viewing was at about 25% in 2000 (I will post that chart tomorrow!). As for a substantial reduction in OTA because of the analog cut off, it may very well be a sharp reduction in the % of people who were getting OTA, but it will be only a few percent of the entire TV audience.

By: dan

dan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:35:37 +0000

thats so true
we have a tv in every room of our house and couple extra just lying around and my neighbor has at least at least 6 tvs and he lives alone i never see vhs players anymore we have one but its attached to a dvd player and i think any ones used it since we got it
but do you know how many people have blu-ray players so far
its probably not much but it would still be nice to know

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:28:59 +0000

Indeed. Entire report linked above now as well. I will be mining it for bits of data to post for the next 2 weeks!

By: squiggleslash

squiggleslash — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:28:57 +0000

Despite it making OTA TV more desirable, I think the switch to ATSC reduced the number of OTA watchers substantially because the choices were either buy a convertor box, buy a new TV, or subscribe to cable. The cable and satellite companies made a big deal of this. Add to that those for whom a convertor box wasn’t enough (because of different reception footprints) and many people who were OTA felt compelled to switch, while many of those who weren’t didn’t switch back.

Still, it dropping to 11% is remarkable, I heard until recently the figure was supposed to be around 25% of households were OTA only. Now the dust has settled, and people are finding OTA gives them near cinema quality video, I wonder whether the cable and satellite figures will start to erode, especially with the economy we’re in.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:24:05 +0000

the only line you omitted from the copy/paste was the link to the full report that definitively answers that question! It’s definitely just digital cable, separately they have direct broadcast satellite in 27 million homes (see page 3). Lots of good info just in that chart, including a breakout of the HD viewing estimates.

There’s a lot more good info in the report including share of viewing for broadcast, cable, independent, etc., and not just for primetime but for total day and other day parts as well. Conan vs. Dave, vs. Jimmy? Bah. In 2007-2008, ad supported cable had a 64% share of late night viewing! (see page 19). I could go on, but…

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/tva_2008_071709.pdf

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:50:32 +0000

Chris, I think that digital cable % is just digital cable, not satellite.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:49:45 +0000

Chris, we still have a VCR in my house. It hasn’t been used in years, but it’s still there, and as far as I know, still works. Perhaps a lot of other people in America are packrats like my family.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:39:37 +0000

Does the 38% of homes that have “Digital Cable” include Satellite carriers as well?

The surprising number to me is the amount of people that still have a VCR. I haven’t had a VCR in my household since my TV/VCR combo went T.U. about 7 years ago. DVD’s are so cheap why wouldn’t people have upgraded by now? Hell, I’ve moved on to Blu ray.

By: John

John — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:37:34 +0000

I’m surprised the percentage of ‘over the air’ only homes is so low. I’d be curious to see a chart explaining how the over the air to cable transition has taken place over the years. Also surprised that many people are willing to pay for television. What’s on that’s worth paying for anyway?

By: Catherine

Catherine — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:31:43 +0000

Should that be a surprise? We have a TV in practically every room. Our son and daughter are grown and they each had TVs in their rooms and then our daughter went off to college and needed a TV there and brought it back and moved overseas so she could not take her extra one with her. Then we had to buy a digital TV, just because…and I have a tiny battery operated analog TV that I used to use when the power went out that doesn’t work any more and when the price comes down and they make a tiny one that is digital I’ll probably get one of those (tornado area). These were accumulated over twenty or so years but it all adds up and amazingly they all work.