Commentary
Online TV Sneaking Up
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 6, 2009
According to the latest ChangeWave survey of business professionals between the ages of 45 and 63 on TV viewing habits vs. home Internet usage, these Boomers spend more free time online than they do watching traditional TV. And, by a five-to-one margin, Boomers are watching less traditional television than they did a year ago. Among this group, 62% say it's because they're not as interested in what's on TV these days, and another 26% say they're spending more time surfing the web.
Traditional TV Viewing vs. Online Activities (% of Respondents, May 2009) | |
Screen Viewing | Hours Per Week |
Non-business hours online | 12.9 |
Hours watching traditional TV | 11.8 |
Source: ChangeWave Research, July 2009 | |
Among traditional TV viewers, 20% say they're likely to downgrade or cancel their current TV service package in the next 6 months. The likelihood of canceling is highest among Cable subscribers (22%) and Satellite subscribers (22%), and lowest among fiber-optic TV subscribers (7%).
TV Service appears most vulnerable, scoring significantly worse than any other subscription service, when Boomer respondents were asked which one paid subscription they'd be most willing to give up.
One Paid Subscription Service Most Likely To Give Up If Necessary (% of Respondents, May 2009) | |
Subscription Willing to Sacrifice | % of Respondents |
TV service | 44% |
Home telephone | 23 |
DVD/Movie rental | 11 |
Internet | 5 |
Newspaper | 4 |
Magazines | 3 |
Cell phone | 3 |
Source: ChangeWave Research, July 2009 | |
In addition, according to the study, video-over-the-Internet now clearly represents a significant threat to traditional TV viewing:
- 69% of Boomers say they've watched video content on their computer over the past 90 days
- 48% of respondents say they'd be willing to pay a monthly fee for a Video-over-the-Internet subscription if it provided the same programming currently available on their TV service
- 79% watch YouTube.com as the leading online website Boomers use to watch video
- 39% TV Network Websites
- 16% Hulu.com
- 11% iTunes
While Boomers clearly want to see fewer ads than they do with conventional broadcasting, 68% say they are willing to view at least some ads online.
Video Advertising vs. Broadcast Advertising (% of Respondents Willing to View on Computer Compared to Broadcast TV) | |
How Many Ads | % of Respondents |
As many | 3% |
Not as many | 18 |
Dramatically fewer | 47 |
None | 22 |
Source: ChangeWave Research, July 2009 | |
According to the findings of the study, one place that Boomer professionals are spending more time online is with social networking sites, where 51% say they currently maintain one or more profiles. Nearly three-in-five of these Boomers report they use the networking site LinkedIn, while another 55% have a Facebook profile, the site normally thought to be most popular among teenagers.
Profile on Social Networking Service (% of Respondents Using Social Network Websites, May 2009) | |
Network | % With Profile |
57% | |
55 | |
Classmates | 22 |
16 | |
MySpace | 12 |
Source: ChangeWave Research, July 2009 | |
77% of users say they would not be willing to pay a subscriber fee for social networking. Of all the services, LinkedIn is the most likely to attract paid subscribers with 7% say they'd be willing to pay a fee if it was no longer free.
The report summarizes by noting that the shift among Boomers towards Video-over-the-Internet is a long-term trend that bodes poorly for traditional TV service providers, as they face challenges:
- 20% of Boomers are likely to downgrade (or cancel) their current TV service in the next 6 months, mostly among Cable and Satellite users
- 44% say TV service is the paid subscription they are most willing to give up
- 48% said they'd be willing to pay a monthly fee for a Video-over-the-Internet subscription if it provided the same programming currently available on their TV service
For additional information from ChangeWave, please visit here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Hey, I just beat the curve. Cancelled TV two days ago. No time to watch, and everything I really want to see is online in some form or other.
I hate to admit that research results surprise me but this one has really caught my attention! Having worked in the senior housing market for years in a client side gig, I remember countless clients suggesting that their residences would never be as "plugged in" as the boomers, gen x or y, but here we have it. I would imagine Nielsen ratings might be shaking a little...after all, the competition for tradditional advertising versus online just got a little more real, with numbers to back them up. Very exciting times.
Caveat emptor... definitely take this "research" with a heaping teaspoon of salt! The pool of the survey is hardly representative of "the boomer generation" if you read their base description. No doubt many "early adopters" and other subgroups have these characteristics, but like other claimed "studies", this is hardly a balanced sampling. Read---The ChangeWave Alliance Research Network is a group of 20,000 highly qualified business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who work in leading companies of select industries. ChangeWave surveys its network members weekly on a range of business and consumer topics, and converts the information into a series of proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports.
What happens to Hulu and Network sites if 20% actually do cancel their cable? My guess is they would get shut down since there is no way that the online model replaces the revenue from the broacast and cable model.
I'd be interested to see how many actually do cut the cable 6 months from now. I think this is a fashionable thing to say but a hard thing to do.
I checked out Change Wave's website. And, I concur with Bill West - interesting, but nothing can be derived from this survey. We do not know how the questions were framed, therefore valid-meaningful responses are suspect. Furthermore the respondents are not representative of the total population. However, this could stimulate more consideration for tracking trends-changes in the future regarding subscription TV. The Market does hold the value - although I do not believe 44% are willing to pull the plug just yet.