Nielsen finds TV consumption at all-time high

Nielsen released its fourth quarter figures for TV, Internet and mobile video consumption in the United States has hit an all-time high.

The average US television viewer now consumes 151 hours of TV per month, roughly 20% of the total month, or 31% of their time awake, if eight hours of sleep are taken into account. Nielsen's "three screens" report considers traditional television viewing, Internet video viewing, and mobile handset video viewing habits when creating an overall picture of American TV consumption.

Of the viewers who said they watch Internet videos, three hours of their monthly 151 are spent watching videos online, and of those who watch video on their phones, 4 hours of their monthly total is spent squinting at their handset screen. According to the survey, women watch Internet video more than men, and Tina Fey's Saturday Night Live parodies of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin caused Internet video consumption to spike in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Furthermore, Internet video viewership is consistently at its highest during the business workday: 65% of online video viewers do so Monday through Friday between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.

The age dispersal Nielsen found among the three screens is wholly unsurprising: The higher age brackets consume traditional TV the most, with adults over 65 watching almost double the amount of kids under 12. Young adults ages 18-24 spend a modest 13 hours per month on the Internet, but by far the largest amount of time watching videos, at 5 hours, compared to the age group spending the most time on the Internet, adults age 35-44 (nearly 39 hours online per month), who only watch 3 hours of video online.