Television Ownership Down in the United States
Last month, while I was out browsing the Santa Cruz thrift shops with a friend who's working on furnishing his new apartment, I noticed a bountiful stock of used TVs ranging from $10 for a smallish screen to $100 for an enormous one. I suggested that my friend take a look at the $100 set. Standing at about 4 feet tall, I proposed that it would be the perfect way to round out his bachelor pad.
"I think I'll pass," my friend said. He explained that he can watch most anything he wants on his laptop, streamed over the internet through sites like Hulu, the network websites, and Netflix. The only exception is sports; he'd just have to watch his Warriors and Giants games at the neighborhood sports bar or back at his parents' house.
Turns out the habits of my friend are representative of a larger trend that has resulted in a decline of television ownership across the country. By no means is the size of the decline earth-shattering -- at least not yet -- but Nielsen has found that for the first time in twenty years, the number of American households that own a television set has decreased from 98.9 percent to 96.7 percent. The reasons for the decline are twofold:
One is poverty: some low-income households no longer own TV sets, most likely because they cannot afford new digital sets and antennas.
The other is technological wizardry: young people who have grown up with laptops in their hands instead of remote controls are opting not to buy TV sets when they graduate from college or enter the work force, at least not at first. Instead, they are subsisting on a diet of television shows and movies from the Internet.
Do any of the Ricochetoisie belong to television-free households? If so, how do you explain your decision to eschew the boob tube?
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Dec '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
I do not have a TV. When I moved to Charleston, SC, four years ago, I decided I wanted to go experience the area instead of sitting in my apartment watching the tube. I have not missed it for a second, except for PSU football, the Yankees, and the Penguins. The internet is a beautiful thing.
Jun '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
Soon, for most people, television will stop being a piece of specialized hardware, and just be another downloadable app. We'll use televisions for awhile, because they're sitting there, and they still work.
May '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
When the broadcast signal went from analog to digital my little TV set went to the e-recyclers. I didn't get a converter box (I was a little annoyed that the federal government was giving out coupons to subsidize the purchase of these things, too), didn't replace the TV, and I've never looked back. Now I spend my days with my imac and Ricochet, and live my own life rather than watch fictional ones.
I only see TV now in hotels when I occasionally travel, and it's kind of appalling. Boring dramas, mean-spirited comedies and shouting heads. I can't say there's not worthwhile programming on TV but what little I've seen doesn't seem to be very much to my taste. Takes up a lot of time, too.
Aug '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
Also see this report.
http://www.convergenceonline.com/downloads/NewContentUS2011.pdf
This is really interesting to me because it shows the market is emphasizing cost and convenience. The film and tv industry has been surprised by how little interest consumers have in $20 theater tickets for headache-inducing post-processed 3D movies and $30 Blu-Ray discs that provide more resolution than more people can perceive. (DVD discs still outsell Blu-Rays and many Blu-Rays now come with a free DVD bundle for use in the car, computer, bedroom tv, etc). A lot of consumers are happy to settle for watching Hulu or whatever content Netflix bought in bulk and resells to the audience for $8/month. From Hollywood's perspective this ain't good. Expect similar changes to hit Hollywood (i.e. lower revenues and format innovations that emphasize convenience over quality) as already hit the music industry about 7 or 8 years earlier.
Edited on May 3, 2011 at 12:24pmDec '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
My wife was working out of town for 6 months. At the time we had the full cable suite and Tivo. After two months of never turning on the TV except to play XBOX I turned everything off but the internet. Didn't miss a thing.
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
Ah yes, the third reason for the decline of televisions: the advent of Ricochet.
Dec '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
Just one flat screen, but this little blurb made me realize that most of the time we have the T.V. on, we also have our laptops close at hand checking up on the latest news, e-mails, etc.. Can you say information overload?
P.S. Diane, can you please change the channel? That dude on the screen annoys me.
Edited on May 3, 2011 at 12:26pmRe: Television Ownership Down in the United States
The only way I can permit myself to have the television on at night is if I'm concurrently monitoring Ricochet for violations of the CoC :)
Jul '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
There's a middle ground: some of us have very nice televisions that we only use to watch DVD's and streaming movies from Netflix. So I would be interested in seeing the numbers of people who no longer subscribe to cable.
Apr '11
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
My family has a television but without the cable hooked up to it. We only use it for xbox. When we built our house 12 years ago we decided for internet over cable and haven't missed it too much. Missing sports is hard and makes it difficult to show my kids what they're supposed to be doing on the court/field. For news we supplement the internet with sirius radio.
When we go on vacation we seem to watch a great deal of tv. Even the commercials are interesting.
Aug '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
When I moved to my recent residence, we went from having digital cable to having nothing at all. We still have an HD TV but it's used for movies and video games. I became accustomed to it. Though, I do still miss some shows. Between Hulu, and Netflix I get enough TV/Movie entertainment. I still get to watch a number of my favorite shows for roughly $15 dollars a month when I combine the portion of my internet bill that was used for the time spent on Hulu and the monthly Netflix fee.
At a time when the economy is bad, money is tight, and I don't know if my job will last through the year I'm not going to pay the $90 extra a month to get cable TV and a DVR. Generally, I stick to a dozen channels and I'm subsidizing all those other channels that no one ever watches which are bundled together. Cable companies should move to an iTunes type profit model. Let the consumer pick and choose the channel(s) they wish to have access to and the prices are based on their popularity.
Jun '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
I have a television, but no cable hook-up. I use it for watching DVD's. I haven't had cable since I 1993. One night I spent 2 hours flipping through channels and never once stopped to watch anything for more than two minutes. I cancelled the cable the next day. I, too, am spending more time watching things on my computer, so even my DVD viewing on the television I have is at a bare minimum. The only thing I miss about not having a cable hook-up is baseball, but I get by.
Jun '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
My son is graduating next week from college. When I called him with the news that the President was going to speak Sunday night, he jumped on his computer to find a live streaming of the news.
He and his roommates own a TV (mostly for games, I think) but don't have cable. They said it would be a stretch to afford. What would have to be scary for the TV industry is that he is not planning on getting cable in grad school either. I think by the time he is through with school, a TV, certainly cable, will be something he can live quite easily without.
Jul '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
While living alone in Tokyo, I did own a TV, but for about a year and a half I was using it as a huge, beautiful computer monitor to watch TV shows and movies off the internet, as well as play music off a desktop computer. Regular computing was done through my laptop and iPhone. It wasn't until the Japanese Diet elections that I ponied up for a cable wire and suddenly realized how much Japanese contemporary culture I was missing by being without TV. However, I don't think the same calculus applies in the US; now I rarely watch TV if my parents haven't turned it on.
Oct '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
Working for most of my career directly or at least peripherally in the radio/TV industry, I have a 60" plasma screen and all the accouterments of the major leagues. I subscribe to Comcast for my wideband internet connection, my phone service, and my business IP Phone system. But I do not have cable TV, nor off the air tuner. For the occasional video program I either use Netflix or DVDs. Occasionally over the last 40 years or so I have had broadcast TV available, but found little of interest. For a while FoxNews satisfied the desire for an alternative to MSM, but given the amount of time wasted even with Fox, a few years ago we dumped it all.
Frankly, a few minutes with Fox and Drudge, and one or two others gives me all I need. Now that I am part of the Ricochet community, I have no real need to go beyond where I am. I'd rather enjoy a good conversation as part of a 4 hour dinner, or get my fingernails dirty in our organic garden, then become a part of the couch vegetation universe.
Apr '11
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
We have two televisions at our house. One is hooked up to a computer, and the other is hooked up to a Roku box (which is hooked up to the internet). We only have a television so that we can have a screen big enough for the entire family to watch at once. We never watch broadcast TV anymore, and even before we quit watching it, it was only the kids watching PBS. We watch all our television programs and most of our movies via internet services like Netflix and Hulu. (We do own some of our favorite DVDs, and when we want some for traveling we use Redbox to rent them.)
Jun '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
We don't have a TV, nor do we buy cable.
After reading John Senior's "The Restoration of Christian Culture," my wife and I got rid of the TV. We were (and still are) too poor to own a TV, but the philosophical reasoning for not having one is equally as strong as the economic.
TV is an invader. It puts the profane, the absurd, and the liberal in your face and in the face of your children. It has also been scientifically shown to impede intellectual development and alter sleep patterns.
Watching TV is kind of like having a mouth full of cavities and eating a bowl of skittles and chocolate milk. You're not helping your situation of advanced decay...
May '10
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
I'm not yet TV free. However, we do only have only one TV set that gets reception. The other one we have which was given to us only is used for playing DVD's, usually for the P90X workouts.
I've found that in the past year, since Hulu has really taken off, I don't really watch traditional TV anymore. The last time I actually sat in front of the big screen was so that I could cuddle with The Man. I don't even recall what was on. And then when I do watch a TV show on my laptop through Hulu, I've usually got to be doing some other type of activity like folding laundry, crafting, doing my hair or playing a video game. Weird, huh.
Mar '11
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
The fact that Mr Obama is constantly on TV (including the pic here) probably has something to do with it.
I just got an Internet-enabled TV, and I can see myself giving up on the Satellite before long. Being a right-wing extremist, I mostly watch Fox News - sometimes the Golf Channel, and sometimes BBC America - I don't really need the other 200 channels, and almost never watch Network TV.
Mar '11
Re: Television Ownership Down in the United States
I have never owned a TV. I watch all my tv programs and movies on a 19in gaming laptop and have netflixs. Cabel is a waste of money nowdays if one does not mind vilolating copyrights on occasion. The only problem is sports, one can watch ESPN online however, they have yet to offer a online only subscription plan. In my area I would have to pay for cable to watch ESPN online. Cable news at times can be nice to have but now days I can get the good segments online if need be.
I my mind the only thing I need to subscribe to is highspeed intrernet. Everything else is optional.
Edited on May 3, 2011 at 2:55pm