The Nielsen Company just released its Q2 2011 Cross-Platform Report, and it’s full of interesting statistics. You can find it at http://www.nielsen.com/crossplatform, but here’s a summary from today’s Multichannel News.

Our love affair with television shows no signs of abating, as the average for monthly viewing is 146 hours and 20 minutes. Time-shifted TV viewing rose 11% as the number of TV homes with digital video recorders is up to 39%. From 2009, time-shifted viewing has increased by 31%.

We love our Internet video, too. According to the report, 48% of households now watch some form of video over the Internet. That could have a lot to do with the fact that 72% of all U.S. homes subscribe to broadband and cable TV, satellite, or FiOS/U-Verse service.

Cable still dominates in terms of pay TV service with a 55.4% share of TV households. DirecTV and Dish captured 29.7% of the market, and the telcos grabbed 5.6%, down from last year’s 6.9% market share.

The number of homes that receive all of their TV signals over the air (DTTB) was pegged at 9.3% of all TV households. That number is certainly higher than CEA has claimed recently, but lower than what NAB’s current research states. In any event, it is an increase of about 200,000 households from the same time period in 2010, a trend that should not be ignored.

Nielsen’s stats also show interesting geographical preferences. The Dallas, TX market has the highest penetration of DVRs, the highest percentage of Apple iOS users, and the youngest TV household median age. Los Angeles has the highest percentage of mobile video users, while the highest cross-platform users from 18 - 34 (computer video streaming and conventional TV viewing) were found in Portland, OR.

Baltimore has the highest video game penetration, while New York City leads in digital cable penetration. Chicago is home to the highest percentage of Android OS users, while New Orleans has the most prime time TV viewers. Minneapolis leads the nation in highest percentage of broadcast-only TV homes (lots of cord-cutters up there?) and also in highest percentage of cross-platform streaming to a computer and conventional TV viewing in the 25 - 54 age group.

What all of these numbers tell us is that it’s really hard to pin down a trend. What works in Boston may not work in San Francisco, and vice-versa. We do know that more and more viewers are comfortable with watching TV on a variety of devices, and that the connected TV is likely to become a staple of home entertainment.

Surprisingly, a new report by Leichtman Research claims that about 90% of all TV viewing is still live, and not time-shifted! Among Netflix junkies, 20% use the Watch Instantly feature on a daily basis, while 78% of those use it to watch movies and TV shows on a conventional TV.

And Netflix streaming isn’t (so far) convincing those households to drop conventional channel packages. Leichtman says that 86% of Netflix households subscribe to a multi-channel service, and 43% of those are also paying for a premium service, numbers which are largely unchanged from last year.

For TV manufacturers, this news is mixed. TV sales have stumbled along in 2011, and everyone’s trying to figure out what ‘the next big thing’ is to drive future demand. DisplaySearch recently forecast no appreciable growth in worldwide TV sales in 2011, and is also calling for flat screen TVs sales to remain mostly flat through 2014.

As a result, look for more deals to be made between TV manufacturers and online video channels, resulting in lots of ‘apps’ and online network channels in the 2012 TV offerings at CES. You’ll also see some content partnerships as well - recall the Sony / IMAX / Discovery 3D channel that launched earlier this year - as the big TV brands try to figure out what will get consumers to upgrade to a new TV. And of course, bells and whistles such as 3D capability will be built-in, as they haven’t overly excited buyers.

Yes, we love our TVs - but apparently not enough to upgrade to a new one…