Researchers think that the link is not television viewing itself, but a pointer to a sedentary lifestyle, which may predispose to asthma.
The study, published in the journal Thorax, followed over 3000 British children from birth to the age of 11. The parents were asked about symptoms of wheezing and whether or not the children had been diagnosed with asthma.
They were also asked to assess their children's TV viewing habits from the age of thee-and-a-half. None of the children had wheezing as babies or toddlers. By the age of 11, 6% of the children had developed asthma.
And children who watched TV for more than two hours a day were almost twice as likely to have been diagnosed with asthma as those who watched the telly less. However, the odds were still small - about two in 100.
Of the children with asthma, 2% did not watch TV, 20% watched TV daily for less than an hour, 34% watched 1-2 hours a day and 44% watched more than two hours daily.
Given that none of the children had wheeze at the age of three-and-a-half, it is unlikely that the children who went on to develop asthma had been forced to do less exercise from an early age because of asthma symptoms, say the researchers.
They speculate that inactivity is the underlying explanation for their findings, if you assume that children who watch more TV lead less active lives - they did not directly monitor the children's exercise levels during the study.
