Study: You’ll spend 1.3 years of your life finding something to watch on TV

In an age where we have more viewing options than ever, countless programming options are leading to paralysis among users when it comes to picking one. According to a study by Ericcson Consumer Lab, American’s spend some 23 minutes a day (on average) searching for something to watch. That’s 474 days over the course of a lifetime!

Cable subscribers have even bigger problems: 44 percent report trying to find something on TV and failing. The average video on demand (VOD) user is slightly better, with issues just 34 percent of the time. The numbers are interesting, as it seems to take longer to find shows to watch on popular VOD services, at least anecdotally. Users are, after all, searching for content rather than just flipping through channels.

But even in terms of VOD providers, not all are created equal. The study points out that HBO Go is a massive time suck, requiring an average of 41 minutes a day to find something worth watching. iTunes took the podium in second place with 33 minutes per day while Netflix and Hulu tied for third at 28 minutes.

At its simplest terms, you’re going to spend over a year of your life trying to decide whether to start ‘Scrubs’ from season one again, or watch something new. I’m going to save you the time: it’s Scrubs. It’ll always be Scrubs — EAAAAAAAGLE!

via Polygon