Audio Video News

The American love affair with TV is stronger than ever. Motorola Mobility’s Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer study found that we watch an average of 23 hours of TV programming and six hours of movies each week—four hours more than the global average of 19 and six hours, respectively, and higher than any of the 17 countries surveyed. Looked at another way, we watch more than a full day’s worth of programming every week. According to Nielsen, our favorite shows are The Big Bang Theory (broadcast) and The Walking Dead (cable). We’ll leave it up to the sociologists to ponder this dichotomy. At the other end of the spectrum are the Japanese and Swedish who apparently have better things to do, with each spending 15 hours a week watching TV and two hours watching movies. (What, no Duck Dynasty?)

The study also found that worldwide TV viewing has nearly doubled since 2011, going from 10 to 19 hours. Other global findings of note:

• Nearly one third (29 percent) of the content consumed in a week is recorded.
• More than a third (36 percent) of all recorded content is never viewed (41 percent in the U.S.).
• More than half (55 percent) of the world’s TV watchers have downloaded a TV program or movie to a mobile device.

Gadgets are the other thing citizens of the world can’t get enough of, according to a five-country survey conducted by Boston-based Sophos. The average person carries 2.9 devices (3.0 in the U.S.) with the almighty smartphone taking first place as the most popular device carried (85 percent—Android and iOS were neck and neck at 40.9 percent and 40.5 percent, respectively), followed by laptops (68 percent), tablets (48 percent), MP3 players (40 percent), and eReaders (29 percent). Inspiration for the survey was a Gizmodo report with a photo showing the more than two dozen tech toys Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak carries in his everyday backpack. Even the survey’s geekiest geek reported carrying only 12 devices.