Linear still dominates US media landscape

Linear still dominates US media landscape
Joseph O'Halloran
| 31 July 2018

Research may be suggesting that digital and on-demand services are supplanting traditional services but a study from Nielsen has shown that linear media platforms still hold sway among US media users.
nielsen 31July2018
The latest Nielsen Total Audience Report showed that in the first quarter of 2018 on average, US adults (18+) are spending over 11 hours a day connected to linear and digital media and almost six hours a day with video alone. In addition, nine tenths of US adults use linear platforms in the average week and live plus time-shifted TV viewing reached 88% of persons in Q1 2018.

Time spent across all media in Q1 2018 was found to have increased by 19 minutes compared with the previous quarter, attributable said Nielsen to more time on TV-connected devices — an increase of five minutes — and with digital platforms (up 13 minutes). Live+Time-shifted TV viewing remained relatively flat at four hours and 46 minutes a day.

Caveating the data, Nielsen noted that seasonality plays a role with quarterly television usage trends, particularly as people transition from holiday breaks and the occurrence of several marquee sporting events, such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl.

Looking at digital platform usage, the Nielsen data found that two-thirds of US TV households have devices capable of streaming content to the TV set and a tenth of television use in streaming capable homes is streaming to the TV set. Over a third of people use their internet connected devices — including apps on their smart TVs — during the average week, while nearly 3% of TV homes subscribed to a virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) while over four-fifths of non-television households still viewed video content. Video consumption on a smartphone increased one minute from Q4 2017 and two minutes from Q3 2017, while video on a tablet also increased to five minutes a day in Q1 2018. Almost 20% of consumers use a smart speaker in the household.

Not surprisingly the user segment spending the largest percentage of time with TV-connected devices and digital devices compared to other demographics was young adults aged 18–34.

“Consumers in today’s fragmented media landscape have so many ways to discover content that matters to them,” commented Peter Katsingris, SVP audience insights at Nielsen commenting on the findings of the Nielsen Total Audience Report.ielsen Total Audience Report. “This plethora of options is shaping behaviour, too, as the ability to choose the source, device, location and time becomes more and more tailored. With each passing day, consumers are able to further customise their own media usage into an individualised experience akin to a media DNA, each consumer with an ability for complete personalisation.”