• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, May 27, 2014

More video viewing drives more TV viewing. That’s the finding of a Viacom study on TV Everywhere revealing that consumers who use the apps and authenticated viewing options watch more programming in general, and they also have more warm fuzzies toward their pay TV operators.

Of the consumers who use TV Everywhere apps and sites, 64% say they watch more TV overall, and among Millenials that percentage rises to 72%, according to the survey of more than 1,300 Viacom viewers ages 13 to 49, and more than 600 kids ages 2 to 12. The study is useful as TV Everywhere emerges as a viable service from the pay-TV business. As it does, any sort of research can be helpful in early days to understand consumer behavior.

Nearly all users said that TV Everywhere adds value to their cable service, while 93% claim they’re more likely to stay with their provider because of the service.

Here are more details about how consumers use TV Everywhere:

-- About 31% say they rewatch episodes of shows they like, while 22% use it to start a show from the beginning.
-- About two-thirds use it more often that other online video sites.
-- Almost one-third lean on the service because they weren’t able to watch the show live.
-- About 28% rely on TV Everywhere because they’re not at home to watch a show.
-- Consumers also use TV Everywhere as a sort of additional TV set in the home, with 22% using it because all the TVs were in use in the house.

But challenges remain before TV Everywhere usage becomes widespread. The service still suffers from a lack of awareness, the study found. What’s more, cable operators don’t yet have a clear marketing winner in terms of how consumers learn about TV Everywhere: 17% had heard from an ad, 16% from a spouse or partner, while most kids heard about it from their parents. Among consumers who don’t use the service, they say they are concerned about hidden costs, they don’t know why they’d need it, or they haven’t heard of it.

Plus, there are still some tech glitches. Buffering and crashing were reported by some respondents as tech problem they encountered.