How Americans Get TV News at Home

Even at a time of fragmenting media use, television remains the dominant way that Americans get news at home, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Nielsen data. And while the largest audiences tune into local and network broadcast news, it is national cable news that commands the most attention from its viewers.

Almost three out of four US adults (71%) watch local television news and 65% view network newscasts over the course of a month, according to Nielsen data from February 2013. While 38% of adults watch some cable news during the month, cable viewers -- particularly the most engaged viewers -- spend far more time with that platform than broadcast viewers do with local or network news. On average, the cable news audience devotes twice as much time to that news source as local and network news viewers spend on those platforms. And the heaviest cable users are far more immersed in that coverage -- watching for more than an hour a day -- than the most loyal viewers of broadcast television news. Even those adults who are the heaviest viewers of local and network news spend more time watching cable than those broadcast outlets. This deeper level of viewer engagement with cable news may help to explain why cable television -- despite a more limited audience -- seems to have an outsized ability to influence the national debate and news agenda.