Despite the growing popularity of viewing television content online in the US, new research reveals that most US adults (94%) who subscribe to cable or satellite television services prefer to watch television on traditional TV sets.
The research, conducted by The Nielsen Company for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), found that one-third of the US adult broadband users (35%) surveyed for the Nielsen-CTAM study said they had watched at least one television programme originally shown on TV in the US via the Internet.
Of those who sought out video content online, 87% watched television programs directly from a TV network website. Further, 82% of those who watched video content online reported that they went online to find a specific television program that they had missed when it first aired on TV.
Online television viewers are not only catching up on their favourite shows – nearly 40% report using the internet to get the scoop on actors and upcoming episodes.
Research from Deloitte has found that 19% of UK households consume online video on a regular basis, with this figure forecast to grow to more than 50% in five years’ time (see 19% Of UK Households Watch Online Video).
In other research, comScore revealed that almost 90% of the UK online population watched over three million internet videos in December (see Almost 90% Of UK Web Users Watch Video Online).
| ONLINE TELEVISION VIEWERS |
| Which TV related activities have you done online? |
| Read background info about a show’s cast member |
39% |
| Viewed a show’s previews |
38% |
| Read background info about the show or the show’s characters |
37% |
| Viewed a behind-the-scenes video clip |
27% |
| Read or viewed a show’s cast member interview |
26% |
| Viewed a show’s bloopers |
22% |
| Viewed a show’s deleted scenes |
20% |
| Source: “CTAM Tracking The Evolving Use of Television and Its Content: Wave 4 Trend Results and Analysis” Study (2008) |
Asked to choose among seventeen online content categories, online television viewers said they prefer to watch shorter video clips when they go online. Specifically, movie trailers (53%), user generated videos (45%), music videos and general news segments (37%), comedy programmes (31%), and sports clips (31%) were respondents’ top choices.
Char Beales, president and CEO of CTAM, said: “Tracking how consumer behaviour is changing as a result of new television viewing platforms is critical to our business.
“As preferences are made clear through research, cable companies and content providers evolve the product mix to best suit viewers’ needs and desires.”
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