The Internet TV habit has
grabbed hold of Americans in just a few short years of streaming prime time onto anytime access. And while we still don't have a firm sense of whether the proverbial "cable cutting" is occurring in
any appreciable way, the video natives are growing restless. This is some of what I take away from the latest Harris Interactive poll taken with Adweek about use and attitudes toward the Web's
relationship to TV.
TV watching on the Web is not just for young digerati anymore. Harris finds that 77% have watched shows online. There is a youthful skew, but not overwhelmingly
so. While 88% of the 18-34 segment has loaded an episode into their browser that only dips down to 75% by the time we get to the 45-54 segment. Even 64% of 55+ demo has watched TV online now. That
breadth itself is impressive. In fact, while some worry about digital outlets cannibalizing those high-margin, high-CPM prime time viewing hours, the opportunity here for new show discovery and
audience development appears to be pronounced. More than half (51%) of adults have watched a TV show online they never saw before on the TV screen.
The survey suggests that audiences have
in short order come to know and expect that TV is also available online. That fast and deep penetration, however, carries an obvious threat to traditional MSOs - fear of decapitation. It is the threat
of cable cutting that the providers need to wonder about now. A majority of TV viewers would actually consider not paying for it and watch Internet-fed TV if some conditions were met.
To wit: 44% say they would quit cable if all the shows they liked were online for free. A quarter of respondents say they would need to know that all the shows they want are
available online at the same time they air on TV. Only 16% say they would cut the cord if the shows were available online for small fee.
Interestingly, the choke point between
Internet and TV is not as much of a core issue as one would thing, with only 16% saying they quit cable if it were easier to get Internet video onto their TV.
Of course you can come at
these results from a couple of directions. One is that threats of cable cutting are more a function of MSO-loathing than they reveal any intention to follow through. Whatever the impetus, however,
those sentiments seem to run awfully high, and certainly higher than any cable/sat company would want them to be. Still, even in this survey that seems to note an eagerness to cut the cable cord, only
2% of respondents said they already had.
On the other hand, the survey also gives TV content providers a pretty clear roadmap of what not to do if they want to retain paying, if not
entirely "loyal" and loving customers. Don't put all your programing for free online. Don't assure people it all will be accessible to them online at the same time it is on air.
Or they
could start charging for their TV content online. Moving from free to fees continues to be the one sure ways to kill off enthusiasm for just about any new platform in America.