TV Sets Are Starting to Disappear from American Homes

Megalith

Megalith

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We know that the number of people paying for television has been declining for several years, but the latest data shows that TV sets are losing popularity, too: households without televisions have increased by 1.3% since 2009, which is pretty interesting, being that TVs are so cheap nowadays and take up even less space. It seems that more and more people are content with small-screen watching on smartphones and laptops.

...the number of TVs in homes shrank to an average of 2.3 in 2015, down from an average of 2.6 televisions per household in 2009, according to the latest available data from the Energy Information Administration. The best-case scenario for that, put forward by the people who sell TV programming for a living, is that Americans are watching TV on devices that aren’t TVs, like laptops, tablets and phones. The flip side of that argument: You can do lots of other things on those devices, which creates even more competition for TV viewing time.
 
Kind of weird, given that TV's today can be used as monitors.

I cut cable a long time ago, but kept the tv, first with a xbox 360 and then with a gaming pc that also serves as video player.

If anything, I'm waiting for a cheap 4k 65" tv and a 4k capable gpu, hopefully with HDR to replace my urrent one.

But i will very rarely watch movies or play games on any of my mobile devices.
 
I can see how there'd be a reduction as some people switch primarily to mobile devices.

I have a 'TV' but it's pretty much just a glorified computer monitor. I've never subscribed to a television service and never will.
 
Sounds like family unit is moving away from watching tv together. The further decay of society. Everyone goes of to their own little corner with their own device. Social interaction based on technology not face to face. ☺
 
People who use mobile devices primarily are probably living in their tech bubble i.e. they don't know how much they miss on using the tiny screen and the tiny speakers.

For me a 65" 4k tv + LSR305s and 120" white screen with full ht setup is something I could never ever trade for a cell phone lol.
 
Smartphones are killing the TV just like video streaming killed DVD / Blu-ray. Blame Netflix.
 
Still have our 1080p and 720p sets we bought 9-10 years ago.. They still work fine, but we hardly watch any TV at all anymore.. Really do not even care for movies anymore. I'd rather watch a non sensationalized apolitical documentary on youtube or a 5 min clip of something entertaining. Seems like in this present "too much information age", with what little time i have, all I want is reliable, non politicized, non sensationalized, truthful information on demand. Television offers very little of what I want or need.

70's, 80's, and some 90's TV was so much more relaxing, funny and entertaining. Everything on TV today I do not relate to, do not care for, stresses me out, or causes cognitive dissonance.

When they break, I probably will not replace. I think I am just developing contempt for everything electronic that is being utilized to tell me how to think, gathers data on everything I do, and imposes all measures of social / psychological engineering upon me for desired outcomes.
 
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One prime use of TV that has been greatly supplemented and in many cases mostly replaced is news. Twenty years ago, TV was the prime way most folks got news and related information. Newspapers were the other prime source. Now you can get equivalent news on your computer, phone or other non TV device. In many cases, the exact same newscast.

Folks who owned stocks would listen for the evening news to find out how their stocks did that day and then place a phone trade order for the next day if needed. Now both are a few clicks away.

As the TV becomes more of an entertainment only device, more folks will do without because they find their fun other places.
 
I stream to the TV, finding watching a PC or mobile device uncomfortable for a long time. I've probably streamed more YT on the Television in the last year than any other format combined going back forever.
 
I haven't owned a TV in awhile. The last one I owned was a Viewsonic 50" plasma which I sold off roughly 18 months after purchase back in 2005. Didn't want to pay the high price of cable or satellite TV and switched to online streaming services. Nowadays I'm just watching news on YouTube or local channels.
 
What about porn? Who wants to watch microscopic titties on a cell phone?
 
the_servicer said:
There is probably a serious flaw in my thinking, but my reaction when I read this was: "How is a change of less than two per cent over nearly a decade significant at all? Hell, what's the measurement error?"
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It's called sensationalism. Without the sensational headline, how would they get you to click on the article?
 
i use a 55" 4k as a main for my gaming setup. Wife and kid always hijack my big TV for their shows, so i just happily put on my headphones and watch shit here. But i still love a massive TV.
 
we have a TV, but it only gets turned on when her dad comes to visit, use my PC for anything and everything i want to watch
 
swetmore said:
Still have our 1080p and 720p sets we bought 9-10 years ago..
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I think that is the biggest reason for downturn. TV makers have been trying all sorts of gimmicks to sell sets to people who are happy with what they have. A lot of people have 40 plus inch tvs(many 50 or bigger) that are about as big as they can fit. The reason to replace one just isn't there.

I'm guessing secondary tv's are also down but most people I know still use their tvs, they just don't have cable. They will have a roku, xbox, appletv etc hooked in or even a smart tv to play netflix, amazon, and hulu though.
 
Redmud said:
Sounds like family unit is moving away from watching tv together. The further decay of society. Everyone goes of to their own little corner with their own device. Social interaction based on technology not face to face. ☺
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Or maybe there is just very little in the way of actual quality content that everybody will agree to watch together.

That being said, the people I know have not gotten rid of their TVs. As another poster said.. a 1.3% change since 2009 is within the margin of error.
 
Everyone seems really focused on this particular "theory" that people are simply using small screens put forward by one person. I haven't owned a TV in over 15 years. I have a 133" screen with projector for watching shows/movies and a 30" monitor in my den. It's much less expensive to buy a large monitor without a TV tuner in it that won't ever be used if you don't use cable/OTA.

Reduced TV sales doesn't mean people are just using laptops and phones to watch media.
 
Based on sales, it's possible that people just do not have a desire to buy a TV. Flat screens have been out long enough, and 4K is still enough in the "barely there" spectrum that many people do not feel motivated. There is also the whole many people not having enough money to buy a TV for several hundred dollars. Just like a drop in sales in PC's does not mean people aren't using them, it just means a 5 year old i5 still meets most peoples computing needs.

I got a new 75" 4K TV for $1100 2 months ago. They are getting dirt cheap.
 
+1 for cheap 4k HDR monitor with a tuner I don't use

+1 for "Internet is the only reason I have Cable" - the triple play promo is cheaper than top-tier internet a la carte , but I haven't plugged in the cablebox / there's nothing in the modem POTS ports

My friends come over to watch GoT, but why do I have to enable Flash to play it?
 
I still have a couple tube TV's. :eek: They haven't been used for years, ever since cable killed the analog channels.

I've been waiting for them to disappear, but I just checked and they are still there :(

Guess I need to quit procrastinating and haul them down to recycling, along with a couple boxes of old computer parts (anyone need an IDE 12x CD burner, or some 1mb simms?)
 
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I have a 50 in my bedroom and 42 TV in the garage, both with Apple TV's hooked up to them served by my Plex machine. I use the 50 for about an hour at night when I go to bed, usually slap on a documentary to listen to as I fall asleep.
The one in the garage doesn't get used much, maybe once or twice every couple of weeks. I mainly use my PC monitor to watch media when I am in the garage.
 
Unless it's something functionally identical (like the monitor or projector example) I really couldn't see myself going without a TV set.
Programming is all streaming (+a few disks here and there) but giving up the big screen? Harsh.

It'd take a very "disconnected" (as in no screens) or mobile-obsessed person to avoid it.
 
Are they? Or is it really just the fact that TVs sold post-CRT last longer, especially since TV doctors inoculated against capacitor plague about 8 years ago? And therefore, people don't need three TVs anymore to make sure they have one that works, like they used to?
 
TVs aren't going anywhere in our house. Watching anything on my phone or tablet is only done out of necessity (lunch at work, business trip, etc.). We tend to find and watch shows that the entire family can enjoy, even if it isn't the highest quality (Flash, Zoo, Doctor Who, Once Upon A Time, etc.) On the occasion I stay up late and want to watch something I turn it on the 50" in the game room and listen through headphones connected to the Roku remote.
Even the idea of sitting in my office watching TV on my computer makes me cringe, I don't understand how people do that. Maybe if the computer was out in the living area with the rest of the family. I know coworkers that go home after work and hide away in their office playing games or watching things... I guess I'd just rather curl up in the recliner with my daughter in my lap and watch the Flash, or sit on the couch with my wife and watch Doctor Who. Can't really do that on a phone/tablet/laptop...
 
My kids spend a lot of time watching YouTube & Netflix on their mobile devices (old smartphones that don't have service). We still seem to use our televisions on a regular basis.
However, we are not buying TV's frequently. As long as they are working, why would I buy a new one? I wonder if they are factoring that into their equation?
 
People will still keep the one TV in the living room. They just won't be buying/replacing the one in their bedroom or kid's rooms.
 
I have a TV, Monitor/s or a Projector in every room apart from the bog and kitchen. None of them have a cable or aerial connection - I don't watch BBC biased shit so I'll be darned if I'm going to cough up £147 ($193) a year for nothing.

The TV Licencing Nazis (Captia on behalf of the BBC) here in the UK constantly bombard me with threatening letters, accuse/insist I watch BBC over the air broadcasts (and now BBC iPlayer too).

They've turned up on my doorstep multiple times trying to trick me into saying I watch as well. The 'Licence Enforcement Officers' are shady characters to say the least...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...tigation-behaviour-tv-licence-fee-collectors/

'Cutting the cord' in the UK is like saying 'no' to a mafia run protection racket in the US.
 
Too early for my math brain to wake up... but an AVERAGE of 2.3 per household down from 2.6 per household ... how is that a drop of 1.3%? That looks closer to 13%

Either way, I have 1 TV in my house, have had 1 TV for the past 20 years (damn I've lived here a long time), the only time there has been more than one TV is when I had borrowed one so I could take my time shopping for a new one, while one TV was dead. I don't need TVs in the bedroom, in the kitchen, or anywhere else in the house other than the living room.
 
EODetroit said:
Are they? Or is it really just the fact that TVs sold post-CRT last longer, especially since TV doctors inoculated against capacitor plague about 8 years ago? And therefore, people don't need three TVs anymore to make sure they have one that works, like they used to?
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Name brand CRTs have been incredibly durable for a very long time. I still have a fully functional RCA brand CRT that I got as a gift in the mid 90's. Give the tube some airflow and it'll just keep going.

westrock2000 said:
Based on sales, it's possible that people just do not have a desire to buy a TV. Flat screens have been out long enough, and 4K is still enough in the "barely there" spectrum that many people do not feel motivated. There is also the whole many people not having enough money to buy a TV for several hundred dollars. Just like a drop in sales in PC's does not mean people aren't using them, it just means a 5 year old i5 still meets most peoples computing needs.

I got a new 75" 4K TV for $1100 2 months ago. They are getting dirt cheap.
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This mainly comes down to the lack of content, particularly in the US. Think how many years it was before many cable companies started carrying limited "HD" programming. Up until recently Comcast was stretching and cropping standard programming, broadcasting the reduced resolution on an HD channel and calling that mess HD content for some of their channels. Still can't get every channel in HD and there are double premiums of an HD box as well as an upgraded HD package to watch. Even then, content is often just 720P or 1080i.

4K is only available through 4K bluray and some heavily compressed streaming. I doubt I'll be getting 4K HBO content from my fiber provider before 2020.
 
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The more relevant statistic is the increase of smug bastards that claim they "don't watch TV," don't own TVs, but have Netflix and HBO subscriptions and watch everything on small screens.
 
I could never watch only on my phone, I mostly use my surface plugged into my 40" lcd, Maybe it is just people have all the tvs they need and just staying with them longer, except 4k what has really changed in the last few years.
 
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Sparky said:
I would not panic at 1.4% over the last 8 years.
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....Im with the guys that say that the numbers arent large enough to be really significant and other "screens" probably make up for the difference. Another [H] post shows that samsung is now the largest semiconductor manuf bypassing intel. Lg is the most well known manuf of oleds, but Samsung makes most of the oleds for smartphones and tablets. Oleds are just another display, so makes up and surpasses the 1.4% loss of tv sets. Had the question asked been about - "tv sets, have you changed your viewing habits" - , the pov would have been different.
 
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