• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 30, 2007

TV has its couch potatoes, and now the Internet has a new name for distinguishing, and tracking heavy users of streamed video and audio content. In new research being unveiled today, Knowledge Networks/SRI has dubbed heavy users of such online content "streamies," and has found that they spend far more time online than the average Internet user.

"Like the adoption of broadband several years ago, we're seeing this as another watershed moment, where people are morphing over to this medium and are beginning to use in a way that is becoming important for advertisers to understand as they look for new ways to reach consumers," says Robert DeFelice, vice president at Knowledge Networks/SRI, and author of new study, which was derived from the research firm's ongoing MultiMedia Mentor studies. The research, which tracks the way average consumers spend their day consuming media, found that the highest percentage of streamies - people who streamed video or audio content online at least once during the past week - are most likely to be younger demos. Forty-three percent of boys ages 12 to 17, and 40% of girls the same age qualify as streamies vs. 36% of men 18 to 34 and 16% of women 18 to 34, and only 21% of men 35 to 64 and 11% of women 35 to 64.

DeFelice calls the findings a "benchmark" for understanding the evolution of streamed media content, and says that among the most important findings is the fact that streamies spend more time online, and that they also appear to spend more time with offline media, as well.

Teen streamies spend 28% more time, young adult streamies spend 41% more time and older adult streamies spend 67% more time online than their non-streamie counterparts, he says.

"One of the more interesting findings is that they are not doing this at the expense of other media like television," DeFelice notes, adding that they simply are using the Internet to consume more audio and video content at times and in places when they cannot access conventional offline media.

Much of that access is occurring during the day when consumers are away from home and at work or at school. Adult users, for example, may be consuming business related content.

DeFelice says KN/SRI still needs to do research on how the streaming is impacting attention to other media that may be viewed or listened to simultaneously.