Estimates suggest that in 2026 U.S. adults will spend around ** percent of their time watching traditional TV each day. This figure has generally fallen in recent years and the downward trend is forecast to continue in the years to come. Screen time Although average daily time spent watching TV appears to be decreasing, this does not necessarily mean that people are spending less time in front of screens; this drop is likely due to an increasing amount of time spent with phones, tablets, and laptops. With on-demand streaming services such as Netflix gaining massive popularity, people can watch a huge range of programming whilst on the go, meaning that screen time is no longer limited to time spent at home in front of the TV. Young people around the world have been especially quick to adopt smartphone-based video streaming habits meaning that television screen time will likely fall even further in the future. Television in the U.S. As mentioned above, the way people are consuming their video entertainment content is rapidly changing in the United States. By 2028, estimates suggest that only **** million U.S. households will pay for traditional TV services, down from over ** million as of 2019. In order to compete for people’s business, cable and satellite providers must find a way to adapt in a way the meets the needs of today’s increasingly mobile consumers. Some are launching their own streaming services in a bid to tackle cord-cutting, most notably Comcast.

Data on the average amount of time people in different countries spend watching TV on-demand showed that Americans aged between 18 and 24 years old watched 2.87 hours of TV on-demand per day, while people from Italy in this age group only watched 1.88 hours per day.

TV consumption - additional information As of 2015, an estimated 1.57 billion households around the world owned at least one TV set , while the surge of the internet has further extended the penetration rates and daily consumption of video content around the world. According to a 2015 report on average daily TV viewing in countries around the world, users in the United States lead the world in daily TV watching time, with some 274 minutes, the equivalent of more than four and a half hours. Another report shows that Americans predominantly spend their time watching cable television, with an average of 205.8 minutes of cable TV content forecast to be watched in 2018.

However, as an increasing number of people turn to the internet and streaming services for their television fix, the number of U.S. households without a television is on the rise. In 2011, there were 8 million "cord nil" households that made no use of cable, satellite or telco services, a figure which rose to 22 million by 2016, the equivalent of 22 percent of all broadband households.

The future of pay TV also appears to be under threat as a result of the direct competition from streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix. The number of pay TV subscribers in the United States has decreased from over 100 million in 2010 to 95.7 million in 2016, with numbers expected to continue falling to 90.7 million by 2022. In comparison, the number of subscribers who subscribe to three or more streaming services has more than doubled from nine percent in December 2014 to 19 percent in December 2016.

According to the most recent data, U.S. viewers aged 15 years and older spent on average *** hours and ** minutes watching TV per day in 2024. Adults aged 75 and above spent the most time watching television at over **** hours, whilst 20 to 24-year-olds watched TV for less than *** hours each day. The dynamic TV landscape The way people consume video entertainment platforms has significantly changed in the past decade, with a forecast suggesting that the time spent watching traditional TV in the U.S. will probably decline in the years ahead, while digital video will gain in popularity. Younger age groups in particular tend to cut the cord and subscribe to video streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. TV advertising in a transition period Similarly, the TV advertising market made a development away from traditional linear TV towards online media. While the ad spending on traditional TV in the U.S. generally increased until the end of the 2010s, this value is projected to decline to below ** billion U.S. dollars in the next few years. By contrast, investments in connected TV advertising are expected to steadily grow, despite the amount being just over half of the traditional TV ad spend by 2025.

In 2024, the average German television spent 176 minutes watching TV every day. This was the lowest figure since 1997, perhaps suggesting that watching TV is becoming less popular.

In 2024, the average daily time spent watching broadcast television in the United Kingdom decreased compared to the previous year. While the viewing time was nearly three hours in 2021, people from the UK spent 35 minutes less on watching TV in 2024.

During the past decade, the time spent watching TV in Sweden generally decreased, despite a small growth of *** minutes from 2019 to 2020, probably due to the pandemic with people staying at home. However, since then, the average daily TV time fell again to ** minutes in 2024. According to the source, people aged 60 years and older watched live TV the most, at *** minutes per day that year. For comparison, 15 to 24-year-olds' daily viewing time amounted to only ** minutes.

People in Japan on average spent **** minutes per weekday watching recorded television in fiscal year 2024. The viewing time increased compared to the previous year because of the inclusion of an additional age group in the survey.

In 2022, the average television viewing time per day was *** minutes in Finland. Over the past ten years, the average time spent watching television slightly increased until 2014, but declined below *** minutes after 2016.

In 2023, the average daily television viewing time in Norway amounted to *** minutes, including online TV time. The viewing time of television has steadily been decreasing in Norway since 2009. In 2022, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's (NRK) channels were most watched, with a viewing time of ** minutes daily. The private channels of TV2 (** minutes) and Warner Bros. Discovery (** minutes) ranked second and third respectively. According to the source, the most popular TV program genres in the mentioned year were entertainment and news, followed by drama and sports.

In 2023, the average time spent per individual watching broadcast television in the UK amounted to *** minutes per day. Despite an initial short spike in viewing time in 2020, likely due to the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, broadcast TV consumption declined each year since 2010. Older audiences tended to consume traditional TV more than their younger counterparts, with people aged 65 years and over watching TV more than **** hours on a daily basis, compared to less than ********among 16 to-24-year-olds. Internet-connected devices transform the TV market The television continues to be crucial to the UK’s media landscape, regardless of declining TV viewing time. The most recent data showed that the number of TV households in the region increased from **** million in 2017 to more than ** million in 2021, as smart TVs and connected TVs become the devices of choice. In 2022, the penetration rate of smart TV sets peaked in 2021 and 2022 at ** percent. Alteration of consumer habits While traditional TV consumption has declined lately, online TV services provided by broadcasters have increased in popularity. The average daily viewing time of broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) in the UK doubled between 2018 and 2022. Additionally, online audiovisual revenues grew by nearly **** billion British pounds during the same period, demonstrating the recent shift from linear TV towards online video alternatives.

Time spent watching cable TV in the United States is constantly declining - at the end of 2024, consumers spent less than a quarter of their TV and video viewing time with cable networks. In December 2021, this share stood at 37 percent.

Daily television consumption in Denmark decreased between 2010 and 2023, with Danish consumers spending around ******** and ********** a day in front of the TV in the last measure period. Similarly, the average daily TV reach in the country decreased from over ** percent in 2012 to only ** percent in 2020.

How does online TV develop in Denmark? Watching online TV or other streaming services increased in Denmark. Another survey from 2020 found, that ** percent of Danish respondents streamed movies, series, TV programs, and video clips at least once a week. Younger people tend to consume online video more than elderly. More than half of the ********-year-olds watched online videos weekly as of 2018. Meanwhile, the share of individuals aged 56 years and older was merely ** percent.

Which age group uses traditional TV the most in Denmark? Particularly younger people used traditional television less and less. According to a survey conducted in 2020, the daily linear TV viewing time among individuals aged 12 to 18 years amounted to ** minutes on average. By comparison, ** to 70-year-olds spent over *** minutes more on watching traditional television.

The total TV and online TV time in Norway declined by nearly **** minutes from 2022 to 2023. The viewing time of live television content dropped the most, while the consumption of broadcaster video-on-demand increased by ***** minutes in the same time period. However, live TV was still the most popular among the population. Norwegians spent ** minutes per day on average on live TV broadcasts, and only ** minutes on watching online television in 2023.

In 2024, TV consumption in the United States was highest among African Americans and Black people, who watched an average of **** hours of TV each day. At the same time, the viewing time dropped among Asian Americans to under *** hours TV and streaming engagement among racial groups As of mid 2022, The U.S. population still spent most of their time watching TV and streaming content on traditional media, such as cable and broadcast. Roughly ** percent of their viewing time was allocated to streaming. It was also observed that Hispanics were more likely to use online video platforms than any other ethnic group, with a viewing time share of over ** percent. By contrast, using streaming services accounted for around ****third of the total viewing time among white and Asian consumers. Traditional TV vs. digital video The way consumers watch TV shows and movies has changed significantly. A forecast showed that traditional TV consumption among Americans will continue to steadily decline in the upcoming years. Meanwhile, with an increasing number of consumers adopting streaming and social videos, digital video soars, outpacing TV viewing time by the end of 2023.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the most popular platform to consume television content in the U.S. was the CTV, with a viewing time of *** minutes per day on average. While cable and broadcast TV consumption has been falling in favor in recent years, time spent watching TV on connected devices has been increasing.

In 2022, the average daily TV viewing time in the U.S. amounted to around ***** hours. While traditional TV is declining in popularity, the time spent watching apps on connected TV devices is growing.

This timeline presents the average amount of time individuals in the United Kingdom (UK) spent watching TV from 2010 to 2014, with a forecast to 2025, broken down by screen. The amount of television viewing time reported to a TV set decreased in the recorded years, and is expected to reach 185 minutes of TV per day in 2025.

According to the most recent data, the average time spent watching television across all European countries came to a total of *** minutes per day in 2021. Romanian and Greek TV viewers spent the longest time in front of their television at around **** hours daily.

The average weekly time spent watching television in Canada from September 2023 to May 2024 was around ** hours a week among adults aged 18 or above. Those between the age of 25 and 54 watched **** hours per week. Meanwhile, teens watched just ***** hours each week. Traditional vs. digital media consumption in Canada According to the most recent data, Canadians spent over ** hours a day with major media in 2021. Taking a deeper look at the specific media split, on average, adults in the country spent *** minutes with traditional media, and the largest portion of time – *** minutes – consuming digital media of all sorts that year. Online video users in Canada In 2021 it was measured that ** percent of the Canadian population watched TV online. The ability to watch time-shifted TV, as opposed to live viewing, has brought about services such as subscription video-on-demand. It is believed that in 2021 there were **** million people subscribing to Netflix in Canada. The popularity and accessibility of programming on such platforms also introduced the notion of binge viewing, defined as watching at least three episodes of a TV show in one sitting.

The average person in Spain watched *** minutes of television a day in 2023. This figure has, however, gradually dwindled, since the peak of daily television hours was registered in 2003 at ***** minutes per person on average. Television is less popular among those aged 25-34 and features its largest number of viewers among the share of the population aged over 75 years. The Spanish television sectorThe television audience may be turning their heads to other type of media, but the advertising expenditure on this medium is still substantial. TV ad spend was on the rise in Spain before the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, registering over *** billion euros. Forecast data shows that in 2022 the figures will recover to similar levels and will remain there until 2025. The revenues generated by radio and television experienced however a drop over the last few years, registering *** billion euros, down from almost *** billion euros cashed in 2009. Spanish television viewer profile and trendsTelevision is to this day, Spain’s preferred media outlet, with ** percent of the population having watched television during 2022. Telecinco, owned by the media group Mediaset, ranked as the most watched television station in Spain, holding over ** percent of the total audience share. Atresmedia’s Antena 3 comes in second, taking up **** percent of the total audience share.