Horowitz Associates has released a study of broadband video consumption on multiple platforms. It's the first I've seen that gives information about the relative popularity of what people are using. And it's good news for those of us in public media. News video segments top the list, moving from 22% to 36% online weekly usage, 2006 to 2007. That beats "non-professional online videos," which doubled from 15% to 30%. The report overview says this about motivation:
... While consumption of broadband video has grown, the study shows that television is still the preferred platform for traditional TV content. The vast majority (70%) of Internet users who watch TV online say do so because they missed the episode on TV. About two out of ten (18%) of these respondents say they watch TV shows online to watch them a second time (after having watched them on TV), or that they watch TV shows online just when they happen to find them or when someone else tells them about them (20%). Conversely, one out of ten (13%) Internet users who watch TV shows online say they watch them directly online, and not on regular TV. ...
Link: Horowitz Associates. Thanks to Craig Birkmaier on the OpenDTV mail list. --Dennis
See also the just released Pew study, which shows that English-speaking Latinos are using on-line video more than whites or African-Americans. See http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/Pew_Videosharing_memo_Jan08.pdf
There is speculation that this huge increase in use is tied to the screen-writers strike, http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080110-video-sharing-site-use-surges-as-writers-strike-goes-on.html
If so, I wonder if the significant impact of this surge in use of on-line video will be an even greater acceleration in the rate of adoption of on-line video. That is, these many more people who are going on-line for video now as an alternative to reality TV and re-runs may eventually have made it to on-line video, but not for a couple more years if not for the writers' strike. Once exposed to these sites and familiar with the process of getting there and finding what they like, they are less likely to return to their old video viewing habits (e.g. regular tv). Couple this phenomena with the need for a DTV receiver after 2/09 and the prospects for broadcast television as we know it seem bleaker and bleaker!
Getting past the hassle factor of a new DTV receiver also requires some big enough critical mass of programming that is valued and most easily viewed over-the-air. PBS can't carry all the water!
Posted by: Northwest Public Radio | Friday, 11 January 2008 at 14:53