TV watching up 7% but millennials flock to mobile, laptops


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Michelle Clancy

| 31 March 2016




The amount of time spent watching TV in the US was up 7% in the fourth quarter according to comScore’s 2015 Cross-Platform Future in Focus report.



The research found that on average, 1,004 hours were spent watching live TV, up from 936 hours a year ago. Time spent watching programmes on DVRs up to 15 days after they originally aired rose to 356 hours from 332 hours.

Among millennials, time spent viewing live TV has been eclipsed by use of desktop computers and phones. Live TV still accounts for 47% of time spent.

“The availability of more viewing options appealing to a wider array of tastes, in addition to the continued expansion of premium original scripted programming on cable networks, has likely contributed to this effect,” comScore said. “It’s possible that digital share of time spent among 25-54 year-olds might also soon surpass live TV.”

Earlier this year, comScore, which specialises in measuring Web usage, acquired Rentrak, which uses set-top box data to gauge TV viewing.