Time spent watching television in the U.S. 2019-2024

Estimates suggest that in 2023 U.S. adults will spend an average of around two hours and 33 minutes watching TV each day. This figure has generally fallen in recent years and the downward trend is forecasted to continue in the years to come. The only exception to this trend is the year 2020, when consumption increased due to a growth in media consumption during the coronavirus outbreak.

Screen time

Although average daily time spent watching TV appears to be decreasing, this does not necessarily mean that people are spending less time in front of screens; this drop is likely due to an increasing amount of time spent with phones, tablets, and laptops. With on-demand streaming services such as Netflix gaining massive popularity, people can watch a huge range of programming whilst on the go, meaning that screen time is no longer limited to time spent at home in front of the TV. Young people around the world have been especially quick to adopt smartphone-based video streaming habits meaning that television screen time will likely fall even further in the future.

Television in the U.S.

As mentioned above, the way people are consuming their video entertainment content is rapidly changing in the United States. By 2026, estimates suggest that only 57.2 million U.S. households will pay for traditional TV services, down from over 100 million as of 2014. In order to compete for people’s business, cable and satellite providers must find a way to adapt in a way the meets the needs of today’s increasingly mobile consumers. Some are launching their own streaming services in a bid to tackle cord-cutting, most notably Comcast and AT&T.