NEW YORK: The average American home now has just under three TV sets. Actually, the average is now 2.93 TV sets per household, up from 2.86 sets per home in 2009, the largest year-over-year increase since 2006 according to Nielsen’s latest Television Audience Report. Last year, the number of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets increased to 55 percent; 28 percent had two sets and 17 percent had one set.
“The report also finds that while the total population continues to increase, the number of people per TV home holds steady at 2.5, carrying on the trend of more TVs per home than people,” Nielsen said.
Of the 114.5 million TV households in the United States last year, less than 10 percent--11.5 million--relied entirely on over-the-air television. The figure is down from12.6 million households in 2008. Around 70 percent have wired cable, while 33 percent have direct broadcast satellite and around 10 percent have both. Nielsen found 46 percent received “an HD signal.”
It also said total ad spending on network TV was down 10 percent while cable ad spending rose 16 percent. Network TV had the biggest haul, however, with $20.3 billion versus $19.1 billion for cable.
Nielsen’s complete Television Audience 2009 report is available at the Nielsen Wire Blog.
