Distracted from Distractions?

Last week Nielsen’s "Three Screen Report" popped into our inboxes and reported that the average person who owns the necessary devices spends 35 hours each week watching TV, four hours watching online video, and an additional 2.5 hours watching "timeshifted" TV, also known as DVR. It also indicated that for 3.5 hours every month, Americans multitask by watching TV and using the internet at the same time. (As if that’s going to make Lost less confusing.)

Our shocked reaction: that’s over 40 hours of video each week! We started mentally tallying our weekly video-watching time. Then that of our family and friends. And then we started doubting the accuracy of the report, or at least what the takeaways should be.

Nielsen records viewer demographics and the time the TV was turned on, assuming that turned on equals tuned in. They also have some panel members keep viewing diaries of the shows they watched, which is likely more accurate in some ways and less accurate in others.

What the survey doesn’t account for are the hours people "watch" TV while preparing dinner or leave the TV on to make a near-empty house feel full. It also doesn’t factor in the use of the mute button when an actual conversation trumps a show or accidental naps.

So while we appreciate the trend of multiple-channel video consumption Nielsen reports, we also take the hard numbers with a grain of salt, or at least with the thought that the findings are one more data point in an ever-evolving picture.