MRG Evening Meeting: The rise of internet TV

The rise of internet television signals the evolution of traditional TV rather than its death, according to Xtreme Insight analyst Lucy Wright.

Speaking at last week’s MRG Evening Meeting, Wright said that the common perception that traditional TV is dying is not true, instead TV is actually evolving, with consumers “watching more TV than we were a decade ago”.

Data from the IAB revealed that the number one reason people watch online TV is to catch up with TV they have missed, she added.

She also identified different types of online TV, such as traditional TV broadcasting online and social networks such as Bebo.

Looking at traditional TV on the internet, the iPlayer is the current dominant force. Figures recently released by the BBC show that the iPlayer received 41 million requests to view programmes in December alone – the biggest month since its launch a year earlier (see BBC Three and BBC iPlayer deliver record performances).

Bebo, meanwhile, has been successful at providing TV content for the web, with some shows moving on to mainstream TV, such as Sofia’s Diary, which moved to digital channel Fiver last year (see Online Show Sofia’s Diary Moves To TV).

Advertising on social networks can be more liberating than on TV as it is less regulated, said Wright, although this is one area Ofcom is looking at.

Wright also mentioned other big players in online TV, including YouTube, which has lots of applications for advertisers to embed ads and launch their own brand channels, which can add longevity to advertisers who are also broadcasting on traditional TV, and Blinkx, “the Google of online TV”, which features new levels of personalisation in the vein of social networks.