ADVERTISEMENT

Americans Are Now Spending More Time on Devices Than Watching TV

U.S. adults’ TV time will drop nine minutes this year, but their digital-video time will increase by eight minutes.

Americans Are Now Spending More Time on Devices Than Watching TV
Attendees use laptop computers and smartphones as they wait to attend a featured session at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, U.S. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Smartphones are officially the king of media.

For the first time, U.S. adults this year will spend more time using their mobile devices than they’ll spend watching TV, according to EMarketer Inc. About 70% of that time will be spent on smartphones.

Americans Are Now Spending More Time on Devices Than Watching TV

The changes in usage have been gradual, but they have huge repercussions for everyone from traditional media companies to app developers. Smartphones’ supremacy means that video viewing is shifting from TV sets and onto mobile devices, for example.

U.S. adults’ TV time will drop nine minutes this year, but their digital-video time will increase by eight minutes, EMarketer estimates. That means the overall time that people spend watching movies, shows and other videos will remain roughly the same.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Jillian Ward

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.