Online video is continuing to build up an audience, and new research shows that this switch to the Web as a source for video viewing is directly contributing to a downturn in the numbers watching traditional television.
According to Ipsos MediaCT, the PC is catching up with old TV as a source for viewers. The research, which is based on US viewing habits measures the change in the market between February 2007 and February 2008.
A Narrowing Gap
Over that time period, the amount of video watched on a TV declined from 75% to 70%. In the same time frame, video viewed on a PC increased from 11% to 19%.
While that shows that TV is still by far the biggest source which Americans use for watching video viewing, in the past year, the gap has narrowed considerably.
Many Factors
Adam Wright, Director at Ipsos MediaCT, explained:
“Streaming video online has become an activity many Americans aren’t just experimenting with, but enjoy on a regular basis. Today, about half of all Internet users aged 12 and up have streamed a video file online in the past 30 days.”
“The growing sophistication of home PCs, as well as the ubiquity of high-speed Internet connections in the home and outside, really facilitated the experimentation process with the digital video medium, and subsequently caused many to adopt the PC as a channel they rely on for video entertainment.”
Meanwhile, mobile video watching is shown not to have increased by much over the past year in the US, which shows that on this score, there is a definite difference between the east and the west, with Asia’s mobile video market growing.
Conclusions
If these kinds of results are repeated year on year then Web video is going to become more and more of a player in the industry.
Traditional television businesses such as the big American networks need to start embracing it rather than fighting against it, or they could find themselves unable to jump on the speeding bandwagon.
