Americans are sitting in front of the Gogglebox more now than at any time in the past according to new figures.

According to Nielsen’s ‘Three Screen Report’, your average US citizen watches over 151 hours of television every month.

The three screen report so named because it incorporates TV, phones and computers, reveals that viewing figures for the fourth quarter of 2008 hit around five hours viewing each day which is at an all time high. In the same quarter 2007 it was 145 hours, so is up a 3.6% amount.

So why the rise? Well the Election was in full swing at that time and of course the resession and credit crunch were biting hard. And it was a cold winter. Leaving residents with no money to spend and exciting political happenings.

Will it be a flash in the pan? We will find out in the first quarter 2009 report.

There are other factors helping the viewing figures rise such as increasing number of Television sets in peoples houses. Apparently the average US house has more TV’s than people living in them.

Then of course we have the massive rise in internet tv available on PC’s and mobile devices including cell phones. Catch up TV and time shifted television courtesy of hardware such as TiVo and other digital recorders. Around 29% of houses have recorders resulting in time watching time shifted tv rose 33% from last year.

Online TV has an extra three hours spent on Internet TV and four hours on phones watching mobile videos. Time spent watching TV online or on mobile devices mostly occurs between 9-5 when everyone should be working!

Anyways as its still work time i shall stop doing this and sneakily watch lost on my mobile.

Related posts:

1. Young Americans are digging internet TV big time
2. Full TV shows viewed online has doubled since 2006
3. December sees a massive surge in online TV viewing
4. Do you spend Twice as Much Time on the Internet as Watching TV
5. Catch up TV will be massive on PC, mobile and TV in 2009