American are watching less TV?

A new report from The Yankee Group says that television viewing declined by an hour per day in 2009.

On the other hand, the latest Three Screen Report from Nielsen says that TV viewing increased in 2009, and that Americans are watching more TV than ever.

The Yankee Group report says that "Consumers spend a total of 3 hours and 17 minutes watching TV, DVDs, videos and pre-recorded programs." But the Nielsen report says the average American watches almost 35 hours of TV per week, nearly 5 hours per day.

That's a huge discrepancy. How can two surveys get such hugely different results? I suspect the answer is in the methodology. Unfortunately, the Yankee Group doesn't provide a lot of information about their methodology on their website. They do indicate that they rely primarily on web-based tools for gathering their data. I would guess that might skew the data a bit.

The Yankee Group also bills themselves as "the global connectivity experts," which suggests they may have a vested interest in promoting "New Media" while downplaying the strength of traditional media outlets.

Carl Howe, the author of the "more internet, less TV" study, said "As consumers have become worried about the economy, they've reduced the amount of time they spend on media..." This statement, in itself, seems to suggest a problem with their survey. Surely, as unemployment increases, more people must have more time to spend on media. As consumers reduce spending in a recession, wouldn't they spend more time with free media and less time on paid entertainment?

Maybe they would even spend more time with both free and paid entertainment. There's a reason why the Great Depression ushered in the Golden Age of Radio, and the Golden Age of Hollywood.

I'll admit to being biased, but I think the Nielsen data has more authority than the Yankee Group data.