Viewers choosy about channels

In 2006, the average U.S. home received 104 television channels but only watched about 15 or 16 of them with any regularity, the Nielsen Co. reported Monday in a news release about viewing trends.

The number of channels each home could get was a record, up from 96 in 2005 and 61 in 2000.

Yet the average home watched only 15% of those channels for more than 10 minutes a week, Nielsen said. That compares with 16% of the channels that registered at least 10 minutes a week in 2005, and 22% in 2000.

What this indicates is that as the number of choices grows and channels are increasingly niche-oriented, viewers don’t have to wander as far to find programming they like. They ferret out a dozen or so favorite channels and stick with them.

-- Lee Margulies