Mele’s Musings

Online TV-Watching Shift Mostly Due to Convenience

Time shifting continues to be the behavior that is driving changes in media consumption.  How far will it go?

Picture: static.rbytes.net

Article excerpt:  Many consumers regularly visit official TV-network websites as well as YouTube, Hulu, Joost and other sites with TV content, both legal and illegal. Males 18 to 24 say they are most likely to visit Fox.com, and females 18 to 24 say they’re most likely to visit ABC.com. However, a majority of consumers say they do not watch online video regularly at any of the network sites.  What’s the greatest driver for watching TV shows on the network sites? The desire to time-shift. The viewers simply could not be in front of the TV at the time the show was originally broadcast. This finding concurs with much of the proprietary research we have done in this regard and implies that online TV viewing is generally accretive, not cannibalizing. (However, 11% of online video viewers say they watch less TV now that they are watching online video on their computers.)
The rest: adage.com

Musing:  Makes sense that consumers are picking and choosing when they are watching video online.   An interesting note that we continue to see is that online video watching doesn’t necessarily decrease the amount of TV time – but rather that it just increases the total amount of media that users consume.  The bigger question to me that comes out of this article is just where people are going to get their content.  Will the network sites be able to expect that users will come to their sites, or will video aggregators be the winners?  My feeling is that consumers will be able to create their own personal networks, pulling in content from whatever providers they like.  The content providers that can figure this out first may be the first ones to really benefit from the shift.  Any thoughts?