Video Viewing on Mobile Phones, TV and Internet
Seniors Account for One Third of American Television Audience
Sep 14, 2009
The Nielsen Company’s latest video viewing statistics indicate that advertisers should not forget the older generation when planning their television campaigns. The reason: Seniors 65 years and older accounted for 18% of the total television audience in the second quarter of 2009. more than any other age group.
Together with the 55-through-64 group, seniors accounted for 33% of the total TV audience. And that’s all before the 20th Century Baby Boomers join the senior ranks.
Television Viewing by Age
Here, according to Nielsen, is how the total television audience was divided by age in the second quarter of 2009:
- 2-through-11 years - 10%
- 12 through 17 years – 6%
- 18 through 24 years – 8%
- 25 through 34 years – 12%
- 35 through 44 years – 14%
- 45 through 54 years – 17%
- 55 through 64 years – 15%
- 65 years and older – 18%
For those advertisers wanting to target seniors with video, television is by far still the best way to go. Seniors 65 and older accounted for only 9% of the Internet video audience and 1% of the mobile phone video audience.
People in the 35-through-54 age group made up 40% of all Internet video viewing. Surprisingly, people 24 and under accounted for only 23% of the Internet viewing.
Mobile Phone Video Viewing
Mobile phone video viewing increased 70% from the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009, thanks primarily to viewers in the 25-through-44 age groups. The 25-through-34 year olds registered 32% of the mobile viewing and the 35-through-44 year olds brought in 20%. They were followed by the 12-through-17 year olds with 19%. The 18-through-24 year olds accounted for only 12% and the percentages dropped drastically with people 45 years old and up.
Nielsen estimated that television reached 284.4 million American home viewers per month in the second quarter of 2009. That was a year-to-year increase of about nine-tenths of one percent. However, the number of people watching “time-shifted” television (on Tivos and other video recorders) increased 32.2% to 82.3 million per month.
The Internet experienced a 19.4% increase in monthly users. Nearly 134 million of those watched video, mostly short videos, on the Internet.
The number of mobile phone users increased only a half percent in the 2009 second quarter, but the number of people viewing video on mobile phones increased 70% to 15.3 million.
Americans Watch TV 141 Hours Per Month
Americans spent about 141 hours per month watching television in the 2009 second quarter. That was up only 1.5 percent over the same 2008 period. They spent a little over 26 hours per month online, and a little over three hours watching Internet video. That was four seconds per month less than Americans spent watching video on their mobile phones.
However, the three hours and 15 seconds that mobile phone users spent watching video was actually down from both the first quarter and 2008 second quarter times. That might not speak well of the satisfaction level for the service and/or the future growth of that video medium.
In its report, Nielsen said "American consumers appear to be adding video consumption platforms, not replacing them, and media multi-tasking is part of the equation."
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