The number of TV viewers in their teens to 30s in Korea dropped by more than 50 percent over the last 10 years.

According to AGB Nielsen Media Research on Sunday, the average teenage viewership of the nation's three major terrestrial broadcasters stood at 4 percent for boys and 5.1 percent for girls in the first 10 months of this year. In contrast, the ratings for the age group in 2002 were 10.3 percent for boys and 11.3 percent for girls.

Ratings among men in their 20s fell from 8.3 percent to 3.8 percent over the same period and for women from 14.6 percent to 5.6 percent. Among those in their 30s, the figure also dropped from 12.9 percent to 5.6 percent for men and 20.8 percent to 9.7 percent for women.

Overall ratings in all age groups fell from 37.4 percent in 2002 to 27.8 percent this year.

AGB Nielsen attributed the decline to a growing preference for accessing entertainment on the Internet, mobile devices and other new media.