Indiantelevision.com Team

(24 August 2006 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The total number of television households within the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) is now estimated at 111.4 million, an increase of 1.1 per cent since last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Nielsen's national Universe Estimates (the estimate of television viewers within the population) also show that the number of viewers aged 2+ increased by 1.1 per cent to 283.5 million.

The national estimates reflect the continued growth of the baby boomers generation, which will reach ages 43 to 61 in 2007. One of the fastest growing demographic categories was persons age 55-64, which increased by 3.9 per cent.

Echo Boomers/Generation Y (teens and 20's) also experienced strong growth, with persons 18-24 increasing by two per cent.

As has been the case in recent years, many of the increases for local television markets in Nielsen Designated Market Area (DMA) rank are in the Southern and Western regions of the United States. This movement continues to be attributed to population migrations to the South and the West. Of the 60 markets that moved up in rank, more than half are located in the Southern or Western regions of the United States. These changes are consistent with the US Census Bureau's most recent annual population
estimates, which indicated that from 2004 to 2005, the top 10 fastest growing states were in the South or the West.

These estimates, which are projected to January 1, 2007, will be used in meter market samples beginning with the data of September 23rd, 2006 and in diary samples with the publication of the October/November surveys.

The following is a list of the more notable increases at the top of Nielsen's DMA ranking:

• Within the top ten markets, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose moved to fifth and Dallas-Ft. Worth moved to sixth
  
• Phoenix, which moved up one spot last year, moves up again this year to 13th
  
• Miami-Ft. Lauderdale moves up to 16th
  
• Orlando-Dayton Beach-Melbourne moves to 19th
  
• Las Vegas moves up five spots to 43rd
  
• Mobile-Pensacola moves up three spots to 59th
  
• Baton Rouge moves up three spots to 93rd
  
• Palm Springs moves up four spots to 149th

Nielsen Media Research annually reports television household estimates each September based on information from a variety of sources, including Claritas (a leading provider of demographic data), the United States Census Bureau, and Nielsen's own television samples.

Nielsen soon will release estimates on ethnic demographics, including estimates on African American, Latino and Asian television populations.