• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 9, 2010

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group found that 24% of all households have a television connected to the Internet. These connections vary from connecting through a video game system, a Blu-Ray player, or the TV set itself. While Internet connectivity has become a common built-in feature in many products, consumers are just beginning to use this feature to watch video from the Internet.

Overall, just 1% of all adults watch video from the Internet via one of these devices daily, and 5% weekly. And usage is heavily skewed to young men, with 16% of men ages 18-34 watching video from the Internet via one of these connected devices weekly, compared to 3% weekly use among all others.

Other findings include:

• 20% of households have a video game system connected to the Internet, 8% have an Internet-connected TV set, and 6% have a Blu-Ray player with an Internet connection (some households have more than one of these)
• 55% of Netflix subscribers report that they used the "Watch Instantly" feature in the past month - overall, 1% of all adults use Netflix's "Watch Instantly" daily, and 4% weekly
• Overall, 3% of adults watch a full length TV show online daily, and 11% weekly
• 5% of those online at home strongly agree that they would be willing to pay $9.95 per month to watch TV shows online from a service like Hulu, while 81% strongly disagree
• Among all individuals online at home, 4% strongly agree that they would consider disconnecting their TV service to just watch video online - compared to 3% last year, and 4% two years ago
• In total, 0.3% of the overall sample are current non-subscribers to a multi-channel video service who disconnected their service in the past year and agree that they don't need to subscribe because most of what they want is available online (these respondents represent 1.6% of the cell phone-only sample)

Despite speculation that consumers are "cutting the cord" to cable, satellite or Telco video services and choosing to watch video exclusively online or through other alternatives, there remains little evidence of this being a trend. Emerging video services do not necessarily create either/or scenarios in decisions to subscribe to a video service or not. Rather, they create opportunities and trade-offs in how, when, what, and where to consume the increasing video entertainment options.

And, Broadband service continued to grow, according to the Leichtman Research Group. The nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 93% of the market, acquired nearly 4.1 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2009.

The top broadband providers now account for nearly 71.8 million subscribers, with cable companies having 39.3 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having 32.5 million subscribers.

Other key findings include:

• The top cable companies netted 57% of the broadband additions in 2009
• The top cable companies added over 2.3 million broadband subscribers in 2009, 73% of the total net additions for the top cable companies in 2008
• The top telephone providers added over 1.7 million broadband subscribers in 2009 - 78% of the total net additions for the top telephone companies in 2008
• In the fourth quarter of 2009, cable and telephone providers added 890,000 broadband subscribers - with cable companies adding about 580,000 subscribers and phone companies adding about 310,000 subscribers in the quarter

These findings are based on a survey of 1,250 households throughout the United States, and are part of a new LRG study, Emerging Video Services IV.