Commentary
Online Video a Male Province So Far
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 11, 2007
According to a new E-Marketer study and report, there will be an estimated 97 million females online in the US this year, compared with 91 million males. When it comes to viewing video online, however, their positions are reversed.
Online Video Viewers as Percent of All Internet Users | ||
Year | Male Video Viewers | Female Video Viewers |
2006 | 71.2% | 55.0% |
2007 | 78.4 | 66.7 |
2008 | 85.5 | 75.0 |
2009 | 88.6 | 80.1 |
2010 | 88.7 | 82.2 |
2011 | 88.8 | 84.6 |
Source: eMarketer, March 2007 | ||
Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Women Online, says "While 78% of males watch video online, only 66% of females do…" (but) "they are less likely than males to visit most video destination sites — even the biggie, YouTube."
EMarketer asks, since "the disproportion is all the more surprising because females watch more TV than males, what do females watch online?"
Rhetorically, the report cites a study by Piper Jaffray that found that news appealed to both genders about equally, but after that men were more likely to watch amateur videos, music videos and movie previews. Women favored movie previews and then music videos.
Online Video Watched By Online Video Viewers, 2006 | ||
Video Type | % Males Viewing | % Females Viewing |
News | 52.3% | 48.% |
Amateur videos | 44.0 | 30.4 |
Music videos | 38.5 | 38.0 |
Movie previews | 35.8 | 47.8 |
Television shows | 32.1 | 19.6 |
Sports highlights | 30.3 | 12.0 |
Live sporting events | 12.8 | 2.2 |
Full length movies | 11.9 | 3.3 |
Other | 10.1 | 7.6 |
Source: Piper Jaffray & Co., February 2007 | ||
And, among female BabyCenter visitors, the most popular type of video was entertainment.
Online Video Watching by US Female Visitors to BabyCenter.com(February, 2007, % of respondents) | |
Video Type | % of Female Visitors Watching |
Entertainment | 61% |
Local/World news | 56 |
User-created | 49 |
Instructional/educational | 44 |
Health oriented | 33 |
TV shows | 33 |
Source: BabyCenter LLc, February 2007 | |
To balance the female viewing preferences, EMarketer showed the results of an InsightExpress study for Advertising.com that shows that 48% of all US consumers are most likely to stream news clips.
Content that U.S. Adult Consumers "Likely" to Stream(January, 2007 % of respondents) | |
Content | % Likely to Stream |
News clips | 48.6% |
Music videos | 47.4 |
Movie trailers | 22.6 |
TV shows | 25.7 |
User-generated videos | 20.5 |
Movies | 19.9 |
Sports clips | 11.2 |
Other | 8.8 |
Source: InsightExpress, February 2007 | |
Ms. Williamson concludes that "Getting the female audience engaged is crucial for the success of online video…"
Please visit EMarketer here for the complete article.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.