Zero TV

There are 5 million "zero-TV" households in the U.S., more than double from 2 million in 2007. It's a small but growing trend that has the media establishment plenty worried.

These people, who make up fewer than 5% of U.S. households, haven't stopped watching television shows. They just do it on their own terms over laptops, tablets and cellphones.

As Nielsen notes, about 75% of these homes still have TVs, but people use them mostly to play video games and watch DVDs.

This creates a huge problem for the industry, one that will likely be a key topic at this week's National Association of Broadcasters' annual trade show. Content creators and broadcast networks make money from these viewers through arrangements with streaming sites such as Netflix (NFLX) and Hulu and through advertising on their websites and apps, according to The Associated Press. Television stations, however, get shut out.

"Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from zero-TV viewers will be zero," the AP says.

A handful of video-streaming sites have become hot properties. Hulu, for example, has reportedly received a $500 million bid from former News Corp. (NWS +2.27%) president Peter Chernin. The site is jointly controlled by News Corp. and Walt Disney (DIS +1.94%).

Luckily for broadcasters, most people are still transfixed by the boob tube. According to Nielsen, Americans spend an average of nearly 41 hours a week, or about 5.5 hours a day, watching content across all screens. People spend more than 34 of those hours in front of a TV.

Even so, given the technological changes in the works, the television industry 10 years from now may not look much like it does today.