U.S. adults spend 10 hours and 24 minutes per day connected to media, according to Nielsen's latest Total Audience Report.
Details: What's more shocking than the crazy amount of time we spend consuming content is the amount that older people consume compared to younger generations. While adults aged 50–64 spend more time per day on media than any other age group, adults aged 18–34 spend more time on digital than TV and TV-connected devices.
The transition to streaming, the legalization of sports betting, and the rise of esports have created new dynamics for the sports industry that will continue to play out next year.
The big picture: Sports betting is driving a new content industry. Betting on a sports event increases the likelihood of watching it on TV, according to a new telecommunications, media and technology report from Deloitte.
Leagues are expanding, and getting choosier. Sports leagues that have traditionally distributed their content to pay-TV providers are thinking more strategically about licensing their content to digital streamers where it will eventually get wider mass distribution.
Regional Sports Networks are losing value: As it turns out, Fox may not be getting the types of bids it wants for its 22 regional sports networks that it has to divest as a part of its deal with Disney.
Football is keeping the lights on: Despite weak November ratings for cable and broadcast networks last month, NFL ratings continue to grow, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.
Facebook announced last week that the criteria used to determine whether someone is a daily active visitor of its product "Watch" is by measuring whether a user spends at least 1 minute on the Watch platform per day, but Axios has confirmed that those 60 seconds do not need to be consecutive.
Why it matters: In order for Facebook to lure advertisers who typically buy ads on television to purchase video ads on Watch, it needs to convince them that the social platform's audience is just as engaged with shows on Watch. But TV networks measure a "view" of a show based on whether a show was watched for 60 consecutive seconds.
Our thought bubble: This doesn't necessarily mean that Facebook doesn't have a handful of very engaged users — it said that its daily visitors to Watch spend more than 20 minutes with the service per day — but it means that the measurement criteria is still too opaque for ad buyers at big brands to be able to buy Watch ads with the same confidence they buy TV ads.
The bottom line: There's a reason Facebook wants you to believe that Watch is pulling in TV-like engagement: It wants to sell TV-like video ads.
Go deeper: Facebook is looking for new income as display ads stagnate
