Nielsen data reports Smartphones and Tablets are devouring TV time

The continued increase of Smartphone usage has seriously affected the time devoted to our daily activities. The spare time given to TV viewing has also been drastically decreased.

According to MSN, the percentage of people aged from 18 to 34 year have rose by 26 as compared to previous year, who use their tablets or smartphone as a streaming device. This Nielsen's data shows that people do not consider their phones as 'second screens' when they are watching TV, but are using it instead of TV.

With the approach of smartphones, tablets and TV connected devices; the usage of traditional TV, radio and computers have fallen drastically, as mentioned by AOL. The usage of the traditional device by the same age group fell by 8 percent over a period with addition to16.6 million people per minute

Nielsen's inaugural "Comparable Metrics" report revealed information through a data, directly comparing the time people spend on various devices.

There are various ways people are making use of their Smartphones. Sometimes they use it while watching TV, even using it outdoors for various purposes or by simply watching TV shows on it. Nielsen's report of "Comparable Metrics" showed average usage per minute. The research involves counts all apps, Web surfing and gameplay rather than texts or calls, as reported by Dothan Eagle.

"It's pretty clear the increased use of mobile devices is having some effect on the system as a whole," said Glenn Enoch, Nielsen's senior vice president of audience insights.

The TV viewing audience aged 18-to-34-year declined by 10 percent to 8.4 million people a minute. The new Nielsen data also measured the time spent in watching videos and playing games on various devices. However the TV-connected devices, on which users can also play games, were not included.

Moreover, even when the researchers excluded TV-connected devices from their study list, the drifting away of people watching videos on TV was seen. The report also showed that the young age group's time spent on watching TV fell about 10 minutes and that contributes to an average of 5 hours and 43 minutes a day. The cut off time is compensated for the 33-minute increase in time spent using computers, smartphones and tablets, rising to an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes.

Since Nielsen inaugurated its tracking service in 1949, an increase of average daily TV viewing has been observed till 2009-10 from 4 hours and 35 minutes a day to a peak of 8 hours and 55 minutes. The increase was evident from increasing TV set sales and the propagation of programming on cable channels.

But ever since then, the viewership has been declining. As according to Nielsen, from late September until mid-November this year, only 8 hours and 13 minutes daily TV watching have been reported.