Also note that 1074 hours per year is just shy of 3 hours per day, seven days per week. Unbelievable!
It is a lot of time, but don't forget that to watch TV you basically just need time. To work you need time and attention, and at some point you don't have the energy to give work the attention it needs to get done.
From my understanding an average work year is around 2000 hours. If 'the average person' worked in an enjoyable environment that was as pleasant as watching television or reading a book they could easily almost double their input at the workplace by cutting out television.
Whether that would double their output is a different question all together.
Would be interesting to see a breakdown of time spent watching television vs. per capita productivity for different first world countries.