Americans can’t get enough of the tube.Americans ages 2 and older spend an average of four hours and 49 minutes a day watching TV, according to The Nielsen Company’s 2008-09 report released Nov. 10. The report said households watched an average of eight hours and 21 minutes a day.The average time Americans spend watching TV is at an all-time high, increasing by four minutes from last year and 20 percent from 10 years ago. The average TV time for households also increased to a record-breaking number.Yongick Jeong, a mass communication professor who teaches a media research course, said Americans watching almost five hours of television a day allows advertisers and networks to send more messages and reach more people. Jeong said increasing television consumption data shows television to be the most popular medium, excluding the Internet.The increase in television sets per household, the increasing number of channels and new technology like digital video records, or DVR, have contributed to the increase in television consumption, according to the report on the Nielsen Wire. “The figures … include live-television viewing plus any DVR playback within seven days,” Alana Johnson, The Nielsen Company communications department specialist, said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille. Cierra Cambre, kinesiology sophomore, said if she had DVR, she would probably watch more television to catch all her favorite shows and not worry about commercial breaks.Ann Ruble, Cox Louisiana public affairs manager, said Cox Communications has seen an increase in DVR sales and rentals every year since they’ve been available.Ruble said Cox’s other “time-shifting” products, including On Demand and MyPrimetime, allow viewers to become “hooked” on new television shows. She said MyPrimetime allows networks like ABC and NBC to put their popular primetime shows on the program 24 hours after the original broadcast. She said viewers who cannot watch these shows during the live broadcast, turn to MyPrimetime to catch their favorite shows.”When you put shows [on On Demand and MyPrimetime], it helps acquire broadcast audiences,” she said. “We’ve seen more and more demand for time shift because you can watch it whenever you want. It has increased viewership of network shows.”Ruble said DVR, On DEMAND and MyPrimetime will continue to affect television consumption because of the increased amount of options these technologies give consumers.”[There is] a generation that’s never had to wait for a show to come around or rerun,” she said. “The habits of people will change. People will get more and more picky about what they want to watch.”Hayes Barber, chemical engineering junior, said he watches most of his television shows on Hulu.com, a free online video service that allows viewers to watch hit TV programs.”I’ve become spoiled with Hulu and DVR,” Barber said. “Now, if what I want to watch isn’t on, I don’t watch TV. Sitting and flipping [through channels] isn’t appealing to me.”Johnson said Nielsen’s television consumption data does not include any Internet viewing.Barber said he only watches TV during meals and study breaks. He said he watches fewer than two hours a day because of his academic schedule.Rima Massasati, mass communication and graphic design sophomore, said she watches two to four hours of television per day. She said she learns about current events from her favorite shows like “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.””Sometimes I should be more productive,” Massasati said. “But when I’m tired, I use my eyes [and watch TV].”–Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]