• by Wayne Friedman , January 26, 2015

Recent research shows that traditional TV still dominates overall video media -- in usage and program investment. Of the total average monthly time spent in October by users, 80% -- 139 hours and 45 minutes -- goes to advertising-supported TV brands, according to the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau.

Facebook is next, at 17 hours and 32 minutes (17:32); YouTube, 6:24; and for four other portals, a total of 11:51. This data comes from Nielsen Npower Live plus seven days of time-shifting for October 2014, persons 2+ and comScore.

Pushing the point of the strength of traditional TV — and of cable TV in particular — CAB says that when looking at one particular program, for example, HGTV’s “Property Brothers,” its total monthly impressions for September 2014 were more than the top 10 YouTube channels combined (2,367.6 million for “Property Brothers” versus 2,355.4 million for YouTube).

And in another broader example, one cable channel, Food Network, tops all monthly views of all YouTube Channels — 13,444.7 million impressions in September for Food Network; and 13,067.6 million for YouTube.

When it comes to programming investment, CAB says all ad-supported TV brands dwarf all digital content providers when it comes to producing premium TV content — $44 billion in 2014 — this versus $1.8 billion for Netflix; $1.0 billion for Amazon; $750 million for Hulu; and $200 million for YouTube.