Web video isn't just for snacking anymore. A third of adult U.S. Internet users will watch full-length television shows online this year on a monthly basis, according to new data from market research firm eMarketer. That proportion is expected to grow to 39% next year as watching TV online increasingly becomes a mainstream activity.
That growth has been steady over the last few years, with a quarter of Internet users watching TV online in 2008 and nearly 30% in 2009. A major factor in expanding the audience for long-form
content has obviously been Hulu, the joint venture of NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment and ABC Inc.
Hulu ranked second only to YouTube in overall streams viewed in April, according to comScore,
and among the top 10 Web video properties with an audience of 38.7 million monthly unique visitors.
The increase in Internet-enabled TV sets and other viewing devices such as tablet computers
should also boost the trend. In-Stat expects U.S. shipments of Web-capable devices that can run TV applications to increase from 14.6 million this year to 83.4 million by 2014.
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Among people who
already watch video regularly online, fully half are streaming TV shows. That figure will rise to 56% in 2011. Not surprisingly, younger adult viewers have especially warmed to watching TV on the PC.
An Andersen Analytics survey of 1000 college students cited by eMarketer showed that 69% had watched an entire TV episode or movie online within the past week. Overall, 86% of 18- to-24-year-olds are
online video watchers.
The growing TV audience online is also leading agencies to push the networks to package digital with traditional TV buys. "Last year, with everything being so slow, people
were less inclined to talk about digital as a component, but now it's back," said Chris Allen, director of video innovation for Starcom USA. "It seems to be an advantage to bring digital along with TV
as we start to get into pricing discussions."
He added that the underlying idea is to let consumer choose where they access video and then make sure ads are there to support that inventory. "I
think clients are getting savvy to that," said Allen. "TV is as alive and well as it's ever been in total time spent, but there are other ways to reach consumers."
Among the trends that that
could slow the expansion of online TV is the shift toward subscription-based models by Hulu and other traditional media companies pushing more aggressively into the digital realm. How these opposing
factors play out will ultimately determine how fast and how soon the trend takes hold -- but it's unlikely that it will dampen the increased consumer demand for full-length video online," stated the
eMarketer report.