Comments

5 hours a day is hard to believe.
With 1 hour commuting, 8 hours sleeping and another 8 working leaves 2 hour to eat, dress up, help kids with homework and,say, surf the internet.
Since its an avergae, for every outdoor american who hardly averages 1 hour a day of TV, ther is another who watches 9 hours of apssive entertainment. (the same goes for every for baby).
Where do these numbers come from? Do people buy books in Amazon just for decoration? Is Disney World empty? Who are all those people in the gym I see every night? The leasue industry is growing, but it includes trips, relaxation, adventure, dinning, etc
Even if you count playstation as "watching TV" I challenge your number. Only TV execs will believe it as dotcoms beleived internet traffic was doubling each day.

Posted by Carlos at March 8, 2005 3:23 PM

Carlos -

Not in my office, so I don't have access to the source I used, but here's a similar source:

http://www.tvturnoff.org/images/facts&figs/factsheets/FactsFigs.pdf

The numbers are close.

I also just found the following stats from 1998. Back then it was "only" 52 days/year:

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co. (1998), the average American watches 3 hours and 46
minutes of TV each day (more than 52 days of nonstop TV-watching per year). By age 65
the average American will have spent nearly 9 years glued to the tube.

FAMILY LIFE

4) Hours per day that TV is on in an average US home: 7 hours, 12 minutes
5) Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
6) Number of videos rented daily in the US: 6 million
7) Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million
8) Chance that an American falls asleep with the TV on at least three nights a week: 1 in
4
9) Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49

VIOLENCE & HEALTH

1) Number of violent acts the average American child sees on TV by age 18: 200,000 2)
Number of murders witnessed by children on television by the age 18: 16,000
3) Percentage of Hollywood executives who believe there is a link between TV violence
and real-life violence: 80
4) Percentage of children polled who said they felt "upset" or "scared" by violence on
television: 91
5) Percent increase in network news coverage of homicide between 1990 and 1995: 336
6) Percent reduction in the American homicide rate between 1990 and 1995: 13
7) Number of medical studies since 1985 linking excessive television watching to
increasing rates of obesity: 12
8) Percentage of American children ages 6 to 11 who were seriously overweight in 1963:
4.5; In 1993: 14
9) Number of ads aired for "junk-food" during four hours of Saturday morning cartoons:
202

COMMERCIALISM

1) Number of TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 30,000
2) Number of TV commercials seen by the average American by age 65: 2 million
3) Percentage of toy advertising dollars spent on television commercials in 1997: 92
4) Percentage of Americans who believe that "most of us buy and consume far more than
we need": 82

GENERAL

1) Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
2) Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
3) Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7
4) Total amount candidates spent on television ads during the 1996 political campaigns:
$2.5 billion
5) Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59
6) Percentage of Americans who can name three Supreme Court Justices: 17

Posted by Steve Yastrow at March 8, 2005 3:33 PM

Ahhh, Steve, I was going to ask for the factoid sheet, but then its hidden in the Comments side !! :)-

I remember this article "will TV die"-a good read

http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3412271

So what does this mean ?? Simultaneous usage of Net/TV creates the risk that marketing messages will become diluted, and therefore less effective.

Posted by /pd at March 8, 2005 4:37 PM

They should have made it two days later. Then you'd simply have to get the pubs to turn it off.

Posted by Tom Asacker at March 8, 2005 4:55 PM

I work all day and work at my biz on the side at night and read books in between. I am a net/info junkie, if anything! The only time the T.V. is on in our home is when we're watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy for the 99th time...

I get my commercial fix via magazines or the net. :-)

Posted by M.R. Maguire at March 8, 2005 5:07 PM

No cheating...! Unplug your TiVo on that day too! ;-)
Also, get your kids to give their GameCube/XBox/PlayStation a much-needed break also.

Gabriel S.

PS: However, Tom can watch his Cirque du Soleil DVD before his speech.

Posted by Gabriel Salcido at March 9, 2005 12:45 AM

Ditto on Carlos' comments. 5 hours per day as average?! That's ridiculous. Interesting though what one would consider acceptable. 3 hours? 2? 4? I'm probably a 2. Anyone else want to fess up?

Personally, I took today off and will probably watch the West Wing on Wednesday. Even with my well worn ReplayTV.

And if I could be a curmudgeon, why bother having a TV free day? It smells of holier-than-thouism. Why not have a talk to your neighbor day? Or dinner with the family day? Or cozy up with a book day?

Posted by Paul Davidson at March 9, 2005 1:37 AM

I spend so much time with my RSS feed these days, wouldn't RSS Freedom Day be more appropriate?

Posted by John M Evans at March 9, 2005 9:51 AM

NATIONAL USA TURN OFF the TV week - someone is watching my 5 hours/day and eating my 20 lbs. of chocolate/year. TV and chocolate are fun in moderation and controlled amounts.

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Posted by Sean at March 9, 2005 10:26 AM

Yes, but no one will toss you in jail for not watching TV. I dont have a TV anyways.

Posted by Matt Nellans at March 9, 2005 12:47 PM

I recently was so sick that I couldn't do anything BUT watch TV, and I think I fell short of the national average. Maybe if you throw in time online I'll match it.

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Posted by Jory Des Jardins at March 9, 2005 5:15 PM

For those interested in a less passive approach to No TV Week, there's:

http://www.adbusters.org/metas/psycho/tvturnoff/

It's the application of a combination of appropriate technology and human action to optimize the state change. Might not be to everyone's taste, though. But I ordered 11 and will be distributing them.

Posted by jeff angus at March 9, 2005 7:12 PM

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I guess I spend less than one hour a day on average watching TV - it is often on but I rarely watch it!!

The exception? ....I have to admit to watching time and time again my beloved Manchester United when ever they are on TV over here in England

Trevor

Posted by Trevor Gay at March 10, 2005 6:24 AM

Thanks to the greater adoption of Tivo, similar Digital Recording Devices, and Video On Demand I think people will actually watch less T.V. because you can now watch what you want when you want leading to the demise of the channel hopping couch potatoe.

viagra over counter Posted by Bronson at March 10, 2005 12:05 PM

Maybe its about having the TV on instead of really watching TV (like when your sick, or ironing, cooking, eating breakfast).
Somewhere I read that 50% of american kids watched TV with their computer on (it´s probably the other way around) so marketing "gurus" have to figure out how to enhance the interactive experience through a not-interactional medieum.
And I don´t even hace the PC in the same room as the TV!!
The thing about numbers is that it doesn´t have to reflect how you behave individually. Any way, I asked 30 people in my office how much TV they watch each day. The average was 1,6 hours. So sombody (maybe our kids!) are watching more than 7 hours a day to make it up. Of course, people tend to deny they watch so much TV (nobody declares to watch soap operas but they sure know whats going on)
Either way, I don´t live in the states but my country (Chile) tends to emulate the American Way (not the self made man part)

Posted by Carlos at March 10, 2005 12:57 PM