BEIJING -- Chinese people have spent more time watching TV in the first quarter this year compared with the figure in the fourth quarter of last year, statistics showed Monday.

According to a big data system affiliated with the National Radio and Television Administration that counts audience rating statistics among about 140 million cable TV and online TV viewers in China, the viewers' average daily TV watching time rose by 22.7 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter.

Each household spent half an hour more on average every day watching TV, the system revealed.

In addition to various prime-time TV series, documentaries and variety shows also saw upbeat rating numbers in this period, it said.