Drop in TV Homes Hints at Larger Shift to Viewing Online, Nielsen Says

The percentage of U.S. homes with a TV set has dropped from 98.9 percent to 96.7 percent year over year, according to Nielsen’s 2012 Advance/Preliminary TV Household Universe Estimate, which includes 2010 Census data, Nielsen said Tuesday. Among the contributing factors to the drop in TV households, Nielsen said, was the DTV transition, after which consumers couldn’t receive digital TV broadcasts without a digital tuner or converter box. TV penetration first dipped after the transition and didn’t rebound over time, it said. Cost of TV ownership also contributed to the drop, as lower-income, rural homes were hit hardest by the weak economy, Nielsen said.

Effects of multiple platforms for viewing video content are just beginning to be felt, Nielsen said, and long-term consequences are still unclear. Nielsen data shows consumers are viewing more video content across all platforms rather than replacing one medium with another, but a small subset of younger, urban consumers are going without paid TV subscriptions, it said. It’s not yet clear whether that’s an economic issue and those consumers will enter the TV marketplace once they have the means, or whether it’s “the beginning of a larger shift to viewing online and on mobile devices,” Nielsen said.

"The media marketplace continues to evolve and become more complex,” said Pat McDonough, senior vice president at Nielsen. While some consumers are being forced for economic reasons to make choices on media devices they buy, others are expanding and adding more audio/video devices in the home. Others may be deferring a TV purchase or replacing a TV with a computer, she said. Nielsen is planning a “cross-platform media strategy” that measures all video content to “report the total picture of video consumption to our clients regardless of delivery method,” she said.

Nielsen will adjust local universe estimates with the changes to be released in late August 2011 for the 2011-12 TV season and review TV penetration on an annual basis moving forward, it said. Nielsen’s definition of a television household requires at least one TV capable of tuning to at least one channel. Analog TVs not updated for digitally transmitted content via a converter box would not count under Nielsen’s definition, it said.