NEW YORK: Television remains the screen of choice among Americans, Nielsen said today. The TV ratings maker posted its most recent “Three Screen Report,” a quarterly analysis from its Anywhere Anytime Media Measurement initiative--A2/M2. For 1Q09, the 285 million Americans who watched TV did so for an average of 153 hours a month, up 1.2 percent from last year.

A total of 131 million Americans watched online video at home and at work for a combined three hours a month, on average. The total represents a 13 percent jump over the first quarter of 2008. The 13.4 million watching video on a mobile phone--out of 230 million mobile phone subscribers--chalked up an average of 3.5 hours a month, up nearly 5 percent. Time-shifted TV grew more than 37 percent, with 79.5 million people shifting more than eight hours of TV monthly.

Nielsen data indicated that TV, Internet and mobile video use continued to increase across the board. Online video grew 13 percent in Q1 2009, driven by strong brand marketing and large media events including the Presidential inauguration, the Super Bowl and March Madness. With U.S. broadband levels increasing, online-video audiences will continue to grow as consumers begin to upgrade their PCs to support increased video consumption.

The number of people viewing video on mobile phones grew 52 percent, up from 11.2 million in 1Q08, but the percentage of all subscribers viewing video remains at around 5 percent. Among age groups, 18-24 year olds showed signs of watching DVR and online video the same amount of time--timeshifting 5 hours and 47 minutes per month, and watching video online 5 hours 3 minutes each month.

The entire A2/M2 report is available at Nielsen’s blog site. – Deborah D. McAdams