There is a long history of people in the US saying they are watching, or plan to watch, less TV, even as Nielsen measurements proved the opposite is true.
“You can go to a sophisticated party in New York City now and people will be talking about television programming, not the latest art film or the latest play,” said David Poltrack, CBS’ veteran chief researcher. “You can go to a bar in a lower socio-economic neighborhood and they’ll be talking about television.”
Now, for every award-winning drama, there is a series about botched plastic surgeries or Kardashians.
However, the push among cable networks during the past decade to make their own original series has significantly increased the amount of quality programs.
When asked in 2000 how much time they spent watching TV the previous day, 84 percent of respondents told the Pew Research Center it was less than four hours, below the Nielsen company’s finding that the average American that year watched four hours, 15 minutes of TV a day.
A Gallup poll in 1990 found 49 percent of people said they spent too much time watching television. Only 19 percent said they watched too little.
This year, Nielsen estimates the average American watches four hours, 50 minutes of TV a day.
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