The Nielsen Company, that arbiter of television ratings, has 
released a study breaking down American gaming habits. The study, part of its March 2011 State of the Media report, finds that Americans spend an average of 13 minutes playing video games on a television each day.
That might not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that the data was taken from Nielsen homes, which are made up of a wide swath of people, many of whom are not core gamers – and many of whom don’t even own a gaming console.
While the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii are 
still game machines first and foremost, they’re increasingly being used for other forms of entertainment.
A new survey by Nielsen finds that non-gaming functionality is on the rise among console owners – and among PS3 owners, it even surpasses the time spent playing games.
If you want to know how much money 
your favorite movie earned at the box office, it’s pretty easy to find out — just look at USA Today or head online. Curious about how well a music CD sold? Billboard or Nielsen’s SoundScan service will let you know.
If you want to know how your favorite video game has sold, though, you’re essentially out of luck.
While ads in video games may not be popular, they are effective.
A new study by Nielsen finds that targeted advertising can result in a substantial increase in sales – and that could spur companies who have been sitting on the fence to jump into the gaming world.
The study looked at in-game Gatorade ads in six EA Sports titles, including the last two installments of the company’s “NHL” franchise and the 2007, 2008 and 2009 versions of “NBA Live”. People who played those games increased their household dollars spent on the sports drink by 24 percent.
As if the television industry didn’t have enough 
to worry about with video games stealing eyeballs away from its programming, now it might have to worry about advertisers jumping ship as well.
A new study from Nielsen of six EA Sports titles found that in-game ads for Gatorade boosted household dollars spent on the sports drink by 24 percent.
3D TV is being pushed hard by television manufacturers,
and while pick-up has been better than expected, it’s still not something the mass audience is clamoring for. Why not?
A new study by Nielsen offers some insight – but you can probably guess the two biggest culprits. The survey finds that the high costs of the sets and being forced to wear 3D glasses are the two key reasons people aren’t rushing out to buy the sets. The news gets worse for manufacturers, though.
If you still doubt the power of social media,
the Nielsen Company would beg to differ. New research from the ratings service finds sites like Facebook and MySpace are dominating nearly one-quarter of the time Americans spend online these days.
The sites are so popular that their usage is more than twice that of video games and triple that of email. And they’re growing at an incredible rate.
Chris Morris: Journalist 