Many of you have probably already heard about the new Nielsen stats out today:

The total average time per household in 2005-06 was eight hours and 14 minutes per day, a three-minute increase from 2004-05. Also resetting the record was total individual time, up three minutes from the previous year to four hours and 35 minutes.

Many have asked us if this is inconsistent with our death-of-tv point of view. What many fail to understand here is that TV is at its peak,and it is a long way down. Three minutes hardly the double and triple digit growth rates of the other media. Just plot out your graph for a couple years and see what happens. Still, some don’t get the message:

“These results demonstrate that television still holds its position as the most popular entertainment platform,” said Patricia McDonough, senior vp planning policy and analysis at Nielsen. “At this point, consumption of emerging forms of entertainment, including Internet television and video on personal devices, seems not to be making an impact on traditional television viewing.”

Even she is hedging her bets with “at this point.”

Then again, no one believed us when we said California would ban talking on cellphones while driving.