Apple recently introduced pay-to-download TV shows in conjunction with the release of the new iPod Video priced at $1.99 per episode. In this interesting article about the dynamics of pricing and network television with relation to advertising they state the following:

Consider for a moment that the average US household television consumption per day is a mind-numbing (both figuratively and literally) 8 hours and 11 minutes PER DAY. At Apple’s $1.99 pricing model that works out to an average television bill of $486 per month. Is it possible that people might start turning off the TV if they were charged per show? Is it possible that the economics of television assume a passive audience that’s willing to watch ANYTHING as long as they don’t need to move?

If this is accurate that is just a massive amount of TV watching! That equals the average working week of 40 hours. Scary.