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's , who follows shares of media names such as (VIA) and (DISCA), today writes that as regular old network TV continues its decline, usage of "internet-connected" devices such as 's (AAPL) , and on 's (GOOGL) 's "" is surging.

Wieser refers to data on television viewing for the month of January. That data shows a continued decline in total TV watching:

During January 2017, total use of television across the whole day fell by -1.3% in terms of average household viewing and fell by -4.2% for adults 18-49. Prime time trends were down by less, falling -1.0% for households and -2.5% adults 18-49 alike. Looking at ad-supported cable and English-language broadcast networks only and among adults 18-49, we can see a viewing decline of -5.8% during prime time, -7.9% on a total day basis. Among households for the same ad-supported cable and English- language broadcast networks, there was a -1.9% decline in viewing during prime time and a -2.3% decline in viewing on a total day basis. As we find when we look at individual program viewing levels, declines were relatively widespread during the month, although declines in football viewing and of Law & Order contributed a significant share of the total day decline, both primarily outside of prime time.

However, the Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku stats continue to soar:

Growth in use of TV involving internet-connected devices (primarily Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast devices) was rapid once again. For the month, households increased this kind of TV viewing by +53.8%, while adults 18-49 were up by +50.4%. The share of viewing over dedicated internet- connected devices was up to 9.6% for adults 18-49 during January 2017 vs. 6.1% in January 2016 and 3.2% in January 2015. Across households, the share of viewing over internet-connected devices was 6.2% in January 2017, up from 4.0% in January 2016 and 2.0% in January 2015.

Wieser notes there is a lot of "watching" not captured in data because it happens not on a TV set — a laptop or phone, say — but he defends the value of the data he offers:

This data generally excludes programming running on devices other than TV sets (i.e. computers, tablets and handsets) if that programming was not encoded for commercial ratings. Viewing of content on OTT devices, through VOD or gaming consoles over a conventional TV is only attributed to individual networks if programming is encoded for commercial ratings, with commercial pods matching a network’s linear feed. Viewing trends would likely look much better if related data were widely measured and syndicated

Total use of TV is important to monitor as it provides investors with a better sense of the health of the medium than relying solely on commercial ratings. There can be differing definitions of what total use of TV is, but going beyond network-level ratings or live + DVR viewing and looking at aggregated sources of viewing (especially including viewing on internet-connected devices, which includes a significant volume of television that concurrently appears on conventional TV) helps to better analyze the relative importance of the medium to consumers.