Traditional television viewing to shrink by 50 percent in five years

New research shows that the viewing of traditional television is shrinking and will drop to less than 50 percent by 2013. Yet, the average amount of video viewing from new media is predicted to increase by 35 percent in the same period.

The new study — the “Multiplatform Video Report” from Solutions Research Group — found that the average American consumer aged 12 and older now spends 6.1 hours daily on the Internet watching video-based entertainment, up from 4.6 percent in 1996. Of this 6.1 hours, 63.9 percent (nearly four hours per day) currently comes from traditional television, including live, DVR and VOD viewing. Video games, Web and PC video, DVDs and video on mobile devices account for the balance.

Traditional television viewing accounted for a lower share of video-based entertainment among younger Americans, coming in at 42.4 percent among those 12-24 (vs. 63.9 percent total population average).

Per capita time spent with personal computers, Web and mobile video will increase from just less than one hour per day currently to nearly 2.9 hours by early 2013, based on factors that include greater access to and use of Web video, significantly increased penetration for laptops, mobile video devices and Internet-enabled devices such as Apple’s iPhone.

Total hours with video-based entertainment on all platforms is forecasted to expand nearly 35 percent to about eight hours on average, as consumers use more screens in more places and video becomes ubiquitous on every screen at home and work and on-the-go. For context, this is close to the time spent sleeping nightly by an average American.

Traditional TV’s share of the total video entertainment pie is projected to shrink from 63.9 percent today to 47.1 percent by 2013, given the overall increase in consumers’ total video-based entertainment consumption.

For more information, visit www.srgnet.com.