• by Naomi , Chris Young , August 2, 2011

Since the early days of online video, marketers have been predicting the rise of the digital living room.

Truth is, I've seen a number of articles discussing its existence, but I question the definition that has been provided over the last few years.  In my eyes, the digital living room can be compared to a mythical figure like the Loch Ness monster or Big Foot. 

So, what exactly is the digital living room? It's not just in your home -- it's in the palm of your hand.   

While some may define it in this manner, the digital living room is not just having a connected television in your home. That's certainly a part of it, but there's more:  it's wherever your eyes may take you during the course of your day. It doesn't matter if you're using a tablet, your smartphone or some other connected device -- you're consuming content in what I believe to be the true digital living room. 

As I've mentioned in one of my previous MediaPost articles, I believed that the couch potato was going to become a relic of the past. But perhaps I may have jumped to that conclusion too quickly -- upon further investigation, perhaps the next generation of couch potatoes will find a home on subway cars, school buses or airplanes. Data released by bandwidth management company Allot seems to support this conclusion, revealing that mobile video streaming is the fastest growing sector of mobile data usage among users, growing by 92%. Not only is video consumption rising on these devices, the number of devices being sold is growing significantly as well. Smartphone shipments outpaced PCs in Q4 2010 according to research firm IDC.  Another report, this one from brokerage firm RBC, says that sales of smartphones will actually outpace desktop computers by the end of the year.

That said, according to a March survey from the insights division of professional services firm PwC, respondents consumed over 12 hours of online content (TV shows, movies and videos) while only close to 9 hours of content came via network and cable television. The coming surge of connected televisions that provide access to services such as Hulu and Netflix will only serve to drive these numbers even further towards an online-dominant reality, one that is influenced by, but not totally dependent on, mobile.

The shift is happening. While we're not yet at a point where the traditional living room is dead, those of us in this industry have a front-row seat to what will be a revolutionary shift in where and when viewers consume content. Hope you enjoy the show.