Tuned In

America Loves TV More, Televisions Less

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | May 4, 2011 | +

Is nothing sacred, America? The Nielsen company reported yesterday that the number of US households with a television actually decreased by over a million last year; this marks the first decline in household TV ownership since 1992 (when figures were corrected to match census data).

Does this mean the nation is rejecting TV? Not the medium, it turns out, though the machine is incrementally less popular. TV viewing itself has increased. This suggests that more people are watching “TV” on non-television devices, and thus that young people are increasingly not even opting to buy televisions once they move on their own.

Despite my own line of work, I understand this. I love watching TV but I’d just as soon not have one; I’ve never loved the idea of having a big metal-and-glass device dominating my living room. My ideal screen would be one that simply materializes on the wall or in the air, then vanishes when I turn it off.

Until Steve Jobs invents one, though, it looks like more people are now opting for computers, tablets, or other screens. Are you one of them? And if so, why are you reading this when you could be watching something?

Related Topics: Business News, nielsen

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  • twocee2

    I just can’t imagine watching TV on a regular basis on anything other than a TV or a very large computer monitor that sits in the same place as my TV.

    I realize that I’m old now (darn whippersnappers with their gadgets and really good eyesight), but am I the only one who thinks watching TV on a 4 inch screen is just not very much fun? I don’t get it.

  • mrbilliam

    I’m 25 and I agree. I will occasionally watch something on Hulu, but I much prefer sitting on my couch in front of my television.

  • shara says

    I am the opposite of the first 2 commenters – our home TV is mostly used for video games, and I watch most stuff on the computer, the iPhone, or my iPad. We do have DVR for stuff that we can’t get online for free, but so much stuff is available through streaming that I can watch it whenever I want, wherever I want. We do some streaming through Apple TV or netflix to the television – but mostly the TV is for Mr. Shara Says to play World of Warcraft.

  • jeia56

    I’m a big sports fan so I like having a TV around for that and Video Games, but I don’t actually use my TV for watching “TV” all that much.

    Sorry to hijack your blog post James, but AMC has a trailer for Hell on Wheels up if you want to check it out.

  • gnatalby

    Don’t tell me what to do geezer!

    I am watching something WHILE I read this! (One window on the left, one on the right.)

  • cashre

    Our household owns a TV – but it functions as a computer screen. We don’t watch TV but catch up on our preferred TV content online. For us, it’s really a question of freedom (we don’t want TV programming to dominate our schedules) and online content allows us to watch only the things we intended to (no commercials!).

  • http://tomcamfield.wordpress.com/ Tom Camfield

    I’m reading this on my laptop as I lie in bed, having just finished watching the Justified finale (where’s the blog post? :-) ). I hate having to abide by television schedules; I’d much rather watch my shows before work (it’s now 7am where I am) than late into the night.

    I guess, if it was possible, that I’d hook my laptop up to a TV and watch that way, it’s just that this fancy new Mac can’t connect to the old TV set we have here (a TV set I have barely used for that exact reason).

    On a side note, I don’t do it to avoid adverts, I wouldn’t mind getting ads about the things I’d be interested in, but I’m just not interested in refinancing loans or learning about a new gambling website, the two types of adverts that dominate British television (tell me about a Steam sale or a blog post about the show I’d just watched and I’d be clicking through with haste…).

    And it’s not just about schedules telling me what to watch and when, it’s the ability to watch the whole of Justified (season 2) in one week as the season comes to a close, to avoid having to wait on any cliffhangers, and to approach the whole thing at my own pace.

  • http://bro4evr.wordpress.com kpetti11

    I, like some of the other posters, have a computer hooked up to a TV for hulu and netflix for shows i want to sit down and watch, then cable for shows i don’t care about/the occasional time when a show i do care about lines up with my schedule.

    I think Tom brings up an interesting point about cliffhangers. It will be interesting to see if the structure of TV shows change once more and more get streamed. With shorter commercials and little/no time between episodes, will cliffhangers and act breaks, before so crucial to the structure of shows and keeping eyeballs, become progressively less important?

    I’m all for merging computers and TVs. I just wish content producers and broadcasters didn’t fight it so much. But now that Netflix is getting into original content, I’m looking forward to seeing how much that shakes things up.

  • bob3905

    I have two televisions in my home a 30inch flat screen and a 52 projection. The largest is for television and DVD mainly. While my wife watches a lot of reality I only sit down for sports and a few DVRed shows I like. The small set is video games and Netflix. I have a desktop PC and my wife a laptop. We both spend much more time on them then we do I TV.

    I see the soap operas are dying. I wonder how long it will be before network dramas folks like my Dad watch are history as well?

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