Study: Viewing video on cell phones more common in Asia than in US, Europe; US watches more TV

Study: TV king in US, Asians rely on mobile video

NEW YORK — The Chinese watch half as much television each day as Americans do, but they are more likely to catch video on computer or mobile phones.

That’s among the findings of a study issued Wednesday by the Nielsen Co., which surveyed some 27,000 online consumers in 55 countries this March. The report offered hints about how technology is used in different parts of the world.

It’s much more common for people in Asian countries to view video on cell phones than it is for those in the United States and Europe, the study showed. The Chinese are 51 percent more likely to watch mobile video than people elsewhere in the world, while Americans are 55 percent less likely, the study said.

A far greater percentage of Americans than Chinese have an extensive number of cable television channels in their homes, said Matt O’Grady, a senior vice president at Nielsen.

“It’s forcing them to have another access point,” O’Grady said.

Americans, on average, watched five hours and four minutes of TV each day in March, behind only Serbia and Macedonia, Nielsen said. The average Chinese resident watched two hours, 36 minutes of TV each day, the study said. Thailand, at 2:11, had the fewest hours of TV watching.

Homes in the United States are among the most likely to have high-definition television. More than half of American homes with TV have high-definition sets, Nielsen said.

People in China and Hong Kong are the most apt to watch video on computers at work, Nielsen said. Meanwhile, U.S. residents are 40 percent less likely than their counterparts across the world to watch at work.

Saudi Arabians and Pakistanis are at least twice as likely as others in the world to own tablet computers or say they’re going to buy them shortly, the survey said. In the U.S., home of Apple and its iPad, people are nearly 20 percent less interested in the devices.