Last week Nielsen released the most recent version of its Three Screen Report, which measures consumption of television, internet and mobile media. As in releases since 2007 the study demonstrates television’s dominance in terms of time spent with the medium. On average a consumer will watch 278 minutes (4.6 hours) of “traditional” (non time-shifted) television per day.

New screen options may have a higher penetration rater but yield a fraction of television time. On average internet is used less than an hour a day. This time is also shared with television as the report highlights report that “the average consumer’s online experience at home is in front of the television almost a third of the time.” Other screen options like time-shifted television, internet video, and mobile video are each used less than 15 minutes per day.

Studying the latest report by age demographic it is obvious that television’s strength lies with the older groups. People over 65 watched traditional television almost twice as much as group aged under 18. The heaviest user group of both time-shifted video and internet usage was the 25-34 demo. The heaviest mobile video user group was the 12-17 demo.

Looking at the results by share of consumption give a slightly different perspective. Although younger age groups do not consume as much television as older groups, the relative share they spend with that medium as as high. This would be an important consideration for marketers trying to reach these groups. For all groups traditional TV reached above a 75% share of consumption time.

How long will users watch so much television and will there eventually be an equal footing in the market between these screens? It is difficult to say since there are many unknowns regarding consumer behavior, market participants and technology.

• Will today’s teenagers shift away from mobile as they grow older and buy their own HD-TVs?
• What is the behavioral ceiling for watching time-shifted TV?
• How will new products like smartphones and Net TVs affect the marketplace?
• How will content producers delineate the “windows” of movies and shows among the various screens and their distributors?

Again, it is difficult to predict the answer. I still expect the market to declare outcomes every quarter.