The average American will watch 9 years of television in his/her lifetime.

In a study conducted by BLS American Time Use Survey, A.C. Nielsen Co. on February 7th, 2012, numerous surprising facts were revealed in relation to how much Americans watch television. 

The average use of television is divided by race. For every 5 hours and 2 minutes Caucasians watch television, African-Americans watch 7 hours and 12 minutes, Hispanics watch 4 hours and 35 minutes, and Asian-Americans watch 3 hours and 14 minutes. Amazingly, 99% of US households possess at least one television, and 65% of US households have three or more. 

The average number of TV sets per house is 2.24, and 67% of Americans watch television while eating dinner. Some other facts: 56% of Americans still pay for cable, 6 million videos are rented daily, and 49% of Americans say they watch too much TV. 

As far as children go, the average child watches 1,480 minutes of television a week (that’s one entire day and some change), and 54% of children prefer watching TV to spending time with their fathers. The ratio of hours spent in school annually to hours spent watching tv is 3:4. 

Children see on average 16,000 30 second ads per year, and lastly, one you’ve probably heard before, the number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18 is 150,000. Sometimes it’s really just better to shut the tv off, especially for children. 

(Source)