TV Begins Eroding As Primary Video Device: Forcing Redefinitions Of 'Households,' Work Vs. Leisure Time

Television is still the media elephant in US living rooms, but the way Americans watch television and other forms of video programming is changing so rapidly that a top Nielsen executive says the media ratings giant has begun working with its clients to “redefine” the very nature of the households it measures.

The reason, Pat McDonough, senior vice president-insight and analytics at Nielsen, said Monday during the opening session of the Advertising Research Foundation’s annual Audience Measurement conference in New York, is that Americans increasingly are accessing video programming from non-traditional devices and in non-traditional ways. “One of the things Nielsen is working on with its client groups is considering redefining the definition of the TV home,” she said after revealing top-line findings from Nielsen’s soon-to-be-released second-quarter 2012 Cross-Platform Report, which shows that the percentage of time spent watching video programming via a conventional TV has declined to 93.7%.