In Depth
Consumers Prefer Online Viewing to VOD, Study Says
Internet video viewing is leaving video-on-demand in the dust.
That’s the conclusion of a new study from Solutions Research Group. The study found that, in November, about 20% of Internet users watched a TV show online each week, compared to 14% who watched a TV show on video-on-demand.
Broadband is in 60 million U.S. homes now, compared to about 37 million homes that have digital cable, said Kaan Yigit, analyst with Solutions Research Group.
“All triple-A network content is up on network Web sites for catch-up purposes now. Only a limited amount of triple-A drama is available on VOD,” Mr. Yigit said.
“VOD has movies, but either they are older than what the customer wants or more expensive than what they want to pay,” he continued. “Twenty-nine percent of those with VOD say the content costs too much. Even though most big cable companies offer lots of free content, there is still a perception that it costs extra money.”
Broadband also is pulling ahead because search is better online and consumers can find content more easily, he said.
The study found that nearly 80 million Americans, representing 43% of the U.S. online population, had streamed a TV show at some point as of November 2007. That’s up from 25% in October 2006. About 5% watched a TV show using an iPod or other portable device.
Many consumers are specifically visiting network Web sites to watch TV shows. About 21% of consumers said that was the main reason they visited a network site. ABC.com has the best user experience, according to 52% of consumers. Fox was next with 44%.
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Comments 4
Chris Heidelberg
Daisy:
This was a great post. I have been producing industrials and political content for 20 years and I recently finished my doctoral studies on Edutainment and Convergence from both an educational, entertainment and technological perspective from media professionals. Ironically, my literature review and my subjects predicted that the web and handhelds would become the preferred method. Furthermore, I am predicting that the HD conversion will only serve to send more people to the web to view content because many people may have problems in with converters in the beginning and web is reliable and accessible through phones and other handhelds. I have been researching this for the entire decade formally and since 1994 informally, and it is great to see researchers looking at this trend and reporters getting the word out to the public. I will lectured about this at the Ragan Web Content Conference in Chicago in December and I will be citing you in April when I participate in Innovation 2008 in Denver as a panelist. It is interesting that NBC is in last place for viewer usability. I am an NBC and USA networks fan, an I have had problems too enjoying my favorite shows. I think the iTunes decision was wrong tactically and financially. They could have used iTunes to send people to NBC.com and HULU and they blew it and gave up $15 million and the Sandisk deal may be good but Apple still has the market. NBC should have kept all distribution avenues open rather than get into an Apple fight, and now the consumers are losing. I hope NBC gets it right like you have Daisy! By the way,maybe you should ask Apple why they are not having shows with ads downloadable. This would be a great giveback to the networks and sell more devices.Keep up the great work!
Chris Heidelberg
Please excuse my typos. It is unbecoming of an educating mind but I was rushing and watching Super Bowl pre-game coverage and Tiger Woods come from behind win! LOL! Hey that's convergence!
Betty L. Merrill
Chris Heidelberg,
Please email me so I can set up an exploratory meeting pursuant to your impromptu, but pre-destined meeting with philip Merrill at Starbucks.
Betty
bettymerrill@mac.com
Weight Loss Surgery Channel
Daisy,
Once again you have hit a home run with the accuracy of your information. We launched a very niche health related video site in January (soft launched in Nov) but we are seeing our stats go off of the chart. What we expected viewer wise for Q1-2009, we hit mid January. We have been approached to launch a couple of other networks(sites), however we are choosing to restrain a bit as our show sponsors are trying to figure out if we should be treated as a broadcast media buy, or an internet media buy. We are finding that there a incredible moving target with the $$'s as people are trying to figure this out.
Thanks again,
Craig Thompson
www.wlschannel.com
twitter.com\@craigbthompson