A study of numbers of users across the entire media universe released by Nielsen reveals that the old standbys are, well, standing by.
Traditional TV viewing (i.e. not DVD, Blu-Ray, or time-shifted) remains the most popular medium by far with 285 million users in the United States. Following close behind is TV’s longtime companion, AM/FM radio, with 258 million listeners.
Nielsen, which has been making a concerted effort toward going digital lately, undertook the study to illustrate the fact that consumers are decidedly cross-channel. Considering that the U.S. population currently stands at about 316 million, it succeeded.
Some 198 million people surf the Internet on a computer, while 164 million tap into the Web and use apps on smartphones; 146 million people watch videos on the Internet and 122 million do so on smartphones.
Social media is now primarily accessed via mobile devices, with 142 million people going that route and 133 million using computers.
The user numbers are all from Q4 2014, and were obtained from Nielsen’s NPOWER/NPM Panel, Netview, Nielsen VideoCensus, Nielsen Electronic Measurement Radio, and RADAR 123.
