There are now more activities than ever to fill your time. From VR headsets to outdoor activities, these options don’t bode well for cable as Americans are watching less TV than ever before.
According to a report from Nielsen, the average American now spends 5 hours a day watching TV. That is down from 2010 when Americans averaged 8.9 hours per day.
Increasingly Americans are finding other things to do as gaming, social media, and other activities account for a large part of this decline.
People paying for live TV has also dropped from 100 million at the start of 2013 to 73 million at the start of 2023.
In a recent survey of our readers, the second most popular reason to cancel cable TV—after the cost—was not using it enough. Now that Americans are spending even less time watching TV that may become an even more popular reason.
The decline both in subscribers and hours viewed doubly impacts cable TV companies via loss of revenue from subscribers and from advertising due to lower viewership.
Increasingly sports and other live events are the only reason people want to pay for cable TV and are instead moving to on-demand-only options whether ad-supported or ad free. It all spells trouble for the future of cable TV.
Have you seen your viewership go up or down over the last 10 years?