Commentary
Online TV Viewing For Catch-Up
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 25, 2010
Americans are consuming more and more video on TV, Web and Mobile according to the recent Nielsen A2/M2 Three Screen Report, but the broader usage patterns suggest that online video is a replacement of DVR use, or used by those who do not have immediate access to TV. TV network content online is used to catch up with programming, and not typically as a replacement for TV viewing, as results from the email survey showed.
Reasons For Watching TV Shows On The Internet | |
Reason | % of Respondents |
Forgot to watch a specific episode when it aired on TV | 54% |
Catching up on the current season of programming because I missed a large number of episodes | 47% |
Catching up on a past season of a program before the next season airs | 33% |
Forgot to record a specific episode with my DVR or TiVo when it aired on TV | 32% |
Other member of my household watching another program at the same time | 18% |
Watch TV programming online when I am at work | 12% |
Watch TV programming online when I travel | 12% |
Source: The Nielsen Company | |
Online TV Network consumption appears to be an activity set aside in specific sessions from most other online activities, says the report. For those who go online to watch TV shows, that activity dominates that particular online session, with women and the 18-34 group spending the biggest parts of their sessions on network viewing:.
Time Watching Video On Broadcast Site When Session Involves Broadcast Site Viewing | |
Viewers | % Session Time Watching |
Average of all | 73% |
Men | 75% |
Women | 69% |
Age Groups |
|
2-11 | 50% |
12-17 | 71% |
18-24 | 78% |
25-34 | 79% |
35-49 | 69% |
50-64 | 68% |
65+ | 59% |
Source: The Nielsen Company | |
While many of us may watch TV with friends or family members, the viewing of TV shows online proves to be a rather solitary activity. This may change as internet connectivity to our main TV screens becomes more ubiquitous, but right now, the majority of online viewers prefer to be alone.
Frequency of Watching TV on the Internet With One or More Other People | |
Frequency | % of Respondents |
Never | 49% |
Rarely | 35 |
Often | 7 |
Frequently | 7 |
Always | 3 |
Source: The Nielsen Company | |
TV commercial spots reused online appear to have more impact on recall and likeability than creative just designed for online, as noted in a case study with food and beverage ads.
Recall In F & B Category on Premium Video Sites (% of Respondents) | ||||
Ad Type | General Recall | Brand Recall | Message Recall | Likeability |
Repurposed TV ad | 55% | 46% | 31% | 24% |
Web original ad | 47 | 40 | 21 | 23 |
Web original flash animation | 34 | 31 | 19 | 14 |
Source: The Nielsen Company | ||||
The writer concludes that "This look into the similarities and differences of TV viewing on the web should be a reminder to brand managers that 'context' is just as much king these days as content."
And, to put Online viewing in perspective, another recent Nielsen report finds that the number of unique viewers of online video increased 5.2% year-over-year from 137.4 million unique viewers in January 2009 to 142.7 million in January 2010.
Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.) | |||
| January 2010 | Year-Over-Year | Month-Over-Month |
Unique Viewers (000) | 142,668 | 5.2% | 3.8% |
Total Streams (000) | 11,061,458 | 5.8% | 3.1% |
Streams per Viewer | 77.5 | 0.5% | -0.8% |
Time per Viewer (min) | 188.7 | 5.7% | -2.3% |
Source: The Nielsen Company | |||
Top U.S. Online Brands Ranked by Total Streams (January 2010) | |||
Rank | Video Brand | Total Streams (000) | M-O-M Streams % Growth |
1 | YouTube | 6,622,374 | 3.0% |
2 | Hulu | 635,546 | 0.1% |
3 | Yahoo! | 221,355 | -9.2% |
4 | MSN/WindowsLive/Bing | 179,741 | 27.3% |
5 | Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network | 137,311 | -3.5% |
6 | MTV Networks Music | 131,077 | 31.7% |
7 | ABC Television | 128,510 | 71.3% |
8 | Fox Interactive Media | 124,513 | -0.7% |
9 | Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network | 117,057 | 9.3% |
10 | Megavideo | 115,089 | 3.7% |
Source: The Nielsen Company | |||
Among the top Web brands ranked by unique viewers in January, Disney Online was the fastest growing month-over-month, increasing 23.3%. Facebook and MSN/WindowsLive/Bing were the second and third fastest growing, increasing 18.6% and 15.6% month-over-month, respectively.
Top U.S. Online Brands Ranked by Unique Viewers (January 2010) | |||
Rank | Video Brand | Unique Viewers (000) | M-O-M Viewers % Growth |
1 | YouTube | 112,642 | 6.7% |
2 | Yahoo! | 26,081 | -5.3% |
3 | 21,529 | 18.6% | |
4 | MSN/WindowsLive/Bing | 15,645 | 15.6% |
5 | Hulu | 15,256 | 11.9% |
6 | Fox Interactive Media | 11,450 | 4.9% |
7 | 10,567 | 2.5% | |
8 | CNN Digital Network | 10,385 | 11.6% |
9 | ESPN Digital Network | 8,995 | 6.2% |
10 | Disney Online | 8,066 | 23.3% |
Source: The Nielsen Company | |||
For additional information from Nielsen and this study, 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.
If anyone is interested in the UK online TV market and would like data on relative share of BBC iPlayer, ITV player, 4oD, Demand Five, at least as far as Tank Top TV viewers are concerned, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us at http://www.tanktop.tv.
I hope this data encourages TV networks to make more episodes available and put shows online as close to air time as possible. Right now people can usually only catch up with the last five episodes of a series on Hulu. This report indicates that people would want to see more than five episodes. Networks could monetize that content better if more if it were available online. Check out this free white paper on the subject of online TV viewers: http://bit.ly/aFzfoy
Who writes these articles? The first paragraph is the longest sentence in the history of bad writing!