• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, November 25, 2011

Just as work expands to fill the time available, so does video.

In its annual survey of cross-platform video consumption, Frank N. Magid found that while half of online consumers are watching TV shows and movies via the Internet, they are also upping what they spend on traditional subscriptions.

The study found that consumers who watch video programming on alternate devices aren’t changing the amount of time they spend watching traditional TV. In fact, the more we watch, the more we watch — there is still plenty of growth in VOD, DVR and DVD usage even among those consumers who watch online content, Magid said.

This may bode well for the consumer electronics makers in 2012. About 40% of consumers say they’ll shop for a new TV in the new year. The number of consumers shopping for a primary TV is up to 28% from a low of 23% in 2009. And about two-thirds of those shoppers say they’ll look for a TV with Internet capability, which means they’ll watch more online video on their TV, just like they were watching more TV on their computers.

It’s sort of like that “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie ” book, where the first thing the mouse wants is a cookie, and the last thing he wants at the end of the story is another cookie. That’s a good book. If you don’t buy a TV today, you should buy that book.