As a huge consumer of media, I’m fascinated with the evolving statistics pertaining to our habits surrounding television and other media consumption. How much TV are we watching? How many commercials? How many networks? HOW ARE WE WASTING OUR LIVES? Will TV kill me?
Instead of finding a study and exploring one statistic, here’s a brief stat dump on our collective TV/Media viewing habits. How in line with the average American are you?
— The average American watches 35 hours of television per week.
— The average American watches 55 minutes of programming on their PCs or mobile devices per day.
— The average person over the age of 65 watches over 50 hours of television per week.
— The average 18-24 year old only watches 2 and a half hours of TV per day.
— The average African American watches 126 more hours than the average Asian American each month.
— However, white Americans account for nearly 72 percent of the television watched during primetime.
— If you add up all the time that the average American spends with electronic media — TV, computers, smart phones, radio, etc. — it’s around 11 and a half hours per day.
— The average American spends 1.7 hours per day outdoors.
— Watching three or more hours a day doubles the likelihood of premature death.
— Each hour of television programming contains approximately 14.5 minutes of commercials.
— The average number of television networks available in cable packages: 189
— The average number of television networks viewers actually watch: 17.5
— In children and teens, television viewing habits correlate with obesity. On average, the more TV a young person watches, the more obese he or she is. However, that correlation does not extend to media consumption on other devices, which is to say: Watching television programs on an iPad is not linked to obesity.
Sources: L.A. Times, NY Daily News, AdAge, Marketing Charts, Snowbrains, and Fox.
