Nielsen: Kids watching TV at eight-year high

Kids are watching more TV than they have in years.

According to Nielsen Media Research, children aged 2-11 spend more hours in front of the tube than they have since at least 2001.

Kids aged 2-5 average more than 32 hours a week in front of a TV.

Kids 6-11 spend a little less, about 28 hours per week, presumably because they're spending more time in school.

Both measures are the highest levels recorded by Nielsen during the study period.

Despite the various new ways to consume media in front of a TV, 97% of all usage among kids is traditional live viewing. Among the 2- to 5-year-olds, for example, their time is divided between traditional TV viewing (25 hours), watching DVR playback (90 minutes), watching DVDs (4.5 hours), using a VCR (45 minutes) and playing video games (1 hour). Older kids are slightly more likely to watch live TV than younger kids.

Nielsen says the growth trend mirrors the overall increase in media consumption that's been tracked by the network over the past two years across multiple platforms.

Another item of note from the study: Kids' TV viewing tends to peak at 8 p.m.