The total number of television households within the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) will be 112.8 million by January 1, 2008 - an increase of 1.3% from the previous year - with the number of viewers age 2+ increasing 1%, to 286 million, the Nielsen Company estimates.

These estimates, along with breakdowns by age and demographics, are effective August 27, 2007 and will be used for the entire 2007-2008 television season.

Nielsen’s national Universe Estimates (the estimate of persons living in TV households) reflect the continued migration of the Baby Boom generation into older demographic groups, Nielsen said.

One of the fastest growing demographic categories was persons age 55-64, which increased 3.9%. In contrast, the number of young adults under the age of 50 grew just 0.3% from last season.

With these new estimates, each household rating point will represent 1.13 million households and each rating point for persons age two years or older will represent 2.86 million people, Nielsen said.

Local Markets

As in recent years, many of the increases for local television markets in the Nielsen Designated Market Area (DMA) ranks are in the Southern and Western regions of the United States, due to population migrations to the South and West, according to Nielsen.

Of the 51 markets that moved up in rank, more than half are located in the Sunbelt.

The Nielsen estimates, which are projected to January 1, 2008, will be used in meter market samples beginning with the data of September 22, 2007 and in diary samples with the publication of the October/November surveys.

During the year New Orleans underwent a 6% growth and moved up in ranking to 53rd from 54th. Other notable increases at the top of Nielsen’s DMA ranking:

• Dallas-Ft. Worth moved up to 5th
• Atlanta moved up to 8th
• Phoenix moved up for the third year in a row, reaching 12th
• Charlotte moved up to the Top 25 markets and is now 25th
• Palm Springs moved up four spots to 144th
• Austin underwent a 6% increase in TV households, moving up to 51st
• Boise moved up five ranks from 118th to 113th

Prior to the Fall television season, Nielsen Media Research reports television household estimates based on information from various sources, including Claritas (a provider of demographic data), the United States Census Bureau, and Nielsen’s own television samples.

A full list of the 2007-2008 local television markets is available here (xls).