Digital taking the centre stage of all the media discussions has certainly made industry people to arrive at multiple and stern conclusions about the conventional media. But talking about Television medium ruling people’s hearts, Nielsen’s new report has confirmed few points ringing the bell of good news for this popular medium. 

U.S. television ad spend was up 4.5 percent in 2011, according to the third and final part of Nielsen’s Advertising & Audiences Report.  The report took an in-depth look at media consumption by platform and found that American advertisers and consumers have a huge appetite for television, as TV holds the lion’s share of ad dollars and consumers’ media time. Ad spend for TV reach $72 billion, more than all other ad platforms combined.

AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT AUDIENCES AND ADVERTISING 

BY MEDIA TYPE

American advertisers and consumers’ appetite for television is apparent, as TV holds the lion’s share of ad dollars and consumers’ media time. The third and final part of Nielsen’s look at audiences and advertising offers an in-depth look at media by platform.Television ad spend in 2011 was up 4.5 percent from 2010, with spending on Spanish-language cable and network TV seeing double digit growth (up 24% and 16%, respectively). Though print makes up a significant share of annual ad spend--accounting for 25 percent--more is spent on TV than all other platforms combined.

BY DEMOGRAPHIC

From Millenials to Boomers, males to females and a variety of race/ethnic groups, part two of Nielsen’s dive into how audiences consume media content presents an in-depth look at usage by demographic. During primetime, white TV viewers use their DVR twice as much as any other race/ethnic group on a daily basis, yet Asians watch the most timeshifted content as a share of overall TV time.  Online, males spend more time overall watching video than females, but the women spend just as much time watching video on Hulu and slightly more time watching video content on Netflix. Primetime is defined as Monday–Saturday 8pm to 11pm and Sunday 7pm to 11pm.

BY GENRE

Consumers have more TV choices than ever before, both in terms of how and where they tune in and what they watch. Nielsen—in the first of a three-part series of insights that tackles these questions— looks at the viewership and advertising across five traditional primetime genres.

Season-to-date among the select group of genres during Prime, Dramas account for 41 percent of viewership, 58 percent of timeshifted viewing, 35 percent of TV ad spend, and 29 percent of broadcast product placements. Broadcast and Cable. 

Primetime is defined as Monday–Saturday 8pm to 11pm and Sunday 7pm to 11pm.

Other findings include:

• Spending on cable TV has increased steadily over the last few years, up 42 percent from 2007.

• The average TV commercial in 2011 was 28.4 seconds.

• Spanish-language cable and network TV saw double digit growth in ad spend, up 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively, from 2010.

• Automotive was the largest category for advertising spend across all media, with $10.2 billion spent by automotive brands in 2011, more than twice as much as the second-largest category—quick-service restaurants.

• AT&T and Verizon were the top TV spenders during 2011 for brands AT&T Wireless Web Access ($1.1 billion) and Verizon Wireless Web Access ($702.2 million).