Video on demand (VoD) is not detracting from television consumption as much as advertisers had feared, with a recent report from Nielsen Media Research and Comcast finding that VoD households are also heavy TV viewers.
The three-month study of VoD consumers in Philadelphia shows that, in this stage of VoD development, there is no evidence of the technology reducing the amount of traditional TV programming consumption.
Page Thompson, senior vice president and general manager of Video Services for Comcast, explained: “This study confirms VoD complements the traditional TV viewing experience.”
“In addition to watching programming not available on traditional TV, customers are using VoD to learn about shows they may not have seen before or ‘catch up’ on past episodes of series they’ve missed.”
The report also found that 75% of households with access to VoD used it at least once in the three-month period, averaging 69 minutes of viewing per day.
The VoD audience is biased towards the young, with the study showing that 18-24 year olds comprised 37% minutes of all VoD viewed, compared to 20% of all traditional television minutes. In contrast, viewers over 54 accounted for only 3% of VoD minutes compared to 30% of all traditional television minutes.
According to Informa Telecoms and Media one-third of homes worldwide will be VoD enabled by 2010, generating $10.7 billion in revenues (see VoD To Reach One Third Of Homes Worldwide By 2010).
By the end of the decade 350 million homes will take VoD services, with North America taking 50% of revenues and accounting for more than half of VoD households.
The Asia Pacific region is forecast to have 125 million on-demand homes by 2010, overtaking the US as market leader, which is predicted to have 103 million on-demand homes by the same time.
The US leads VoD uptake with eMarketer estimating that there are 24 million VoD enabled homes, increasing to 47 million by 2007. Elsewhere, Magna Global is less optimistic, forecasting the figure to be much lower, at 33.5 million (see Emerging Technologies In The TV Marketplace).
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