Woman watches TV 17 hours a day

Tauranga woman Carol Maber watches a staggering 17 hours of television a day.

The 28-year-old mother-of-two won a prize for her remarkable viewing from the More FM Breakfast show.

A lover of both television and movies, Miss Maber turns the TV on in the morning where it stays as a permanent background feature while she cooks, cleans and plays with her two-year- old daughter Caitlin.

"I have it on all day and night and it helps me get to sleep. I couldn't live without television," she said.

Seventeen hours a day watching TV is unusually high according to a Statistics New Zealand survey, which shows people aged 25 to 54 spend on average one-and-a-half hours a day watching television and almost another hour in combination with domestic duties.

More time is spent by those aged 12 to 24, who spend between two and three hours of their day primarily watching television and another 45 minutes watching while doing other activities.

The greatest amount of viewing is done by older people over the age of 65 who spent an average of three-and-a-half hours watching TV every day.

Miss Maber has developed a strict schedule for her day, which includes her two favourite programmes, Home and Away and Shortland Street. She is also a big fan of all the DIY shows.

"In the morning I watch TV2 then I switch it to TV3 at 3.30pm and it stays on that until 6 o'clock when I turn it back to TV2. Sometimes I watch the news at 6 otherwise I watch Nightline and if there is something boring on I put on a video or DVD."

She has an extensive video collection featuring around 300 movies, her favourite movie being American Pie.

Despite this, all of Miss Maber's time is not spent in her central Tauranga home. She also has a regular pamphlet drop and frequently gets out in the garden. In the weekends the schedule changes while she spends time with her partner and 14-year-old son.

Miss Maber agrees that she watches a lot of television and said she would change it if she had something else to focus on. Having previously been employed for five years as a mental health worker, Miss Maber was waiting until her daughter was old enough to attend school so that she can go back to work.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES