Online Video Not Killing TV, Says Nielsen
Earlier this month, we heard how online video was cannibalizing TV consumption, thanks to data coming out of an IBM study that polled people across six different countries worldwide. The study showed that 36% of people watched "significantly less" TV as a result of their online video viewing. This week, however, a report from Nielsen contradicts that study. Their "A2/M2 Three Screen Report" released yesterday shows that TV viewership isn't declining at all...in fact, it's at an all time high.
The new report from the media analysts at Nielsen found that video viewing across all three screens - TV, Internet, and mobile - increased from last year. As of the third quarter 2008, the average person in the U.S. watched approximately 142 hours of TV in one month. In addition, people who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, and people who used a mobile phone spent 3 hours a month watching mobile video.
This year, TV viewing is even breaking records. The average time a U.S. home used a TV set during the 2007-08 television season was up to 8 hours and 18 minutes per day, a record high since Nielsen started measuring television in the 1950's.
Since Nielsen only measures TV viewing in the U.S., that could explain the differences between their findings and those of the IBM study. Or perhaps the IBM study was just a little too subjective. A poll where you ask people to rate their own habits can't compete with the cold, hard data that comes from the Nielsen boxes installed in thousands of homes across the U.S.
TV Execs, Remember: All Three Screens Are Doing Well
We're glad that network TV isn't going away anytime soon, but we're concerned now that this report will give the ever-hesitant TV networks another reason to back away from making their videos available online. If they only hear the part about "TV viewing having a record year," then they're going to miss another very important aspect to this report: viewing has increased on all three screens. That means that even though TV viewing is an all-time high, both mobile viewing and online videos are seeing a surge as well. If anything, that should be a huge encouragement to the industry as it proves that, not only does online and mobile video not detract from TV viewing, there's an opportunity to monetize all three screens for record amounts of income too.
Of course, that's if you believe Nielsen's numbers. IBM said otherwise. (Wait, IBM said? Since when is IBM an expert in TV?) Well, maybe the other counties IBM polled are behaving differently, but here in the U.S. it seems the TV is still king.
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"All three screens are doing well." Right on the button there. Even stats in Europe vouch for that. Basically, the Popcorn affect (marketing guru Faith Popcorn). Shows the importance of popping up all over the place, otherwise known as marketing synergy.
There's a simple explanation for the difference, as noted by Om Malik today - the U.S. elections will have skewed the figures a huge amount.
Who will guard the Guards?
I am a huge fan of online videos (especially live videos) and hope that this area just continues to grow. My brother and I created a website (www.lyvegyde.com) to gather links to live, online events such as video webcasts of concerts, speeches, and sporting events. We find so many free and interesting live videos, that we just hope more organizations utilize online videos to cover events that are not featured on tv.
Boxes that measure TVs that are turned on really tells us nothing about whether people are actually watching. I see a tendency to "watching" TV with an always-on laptop, ready to surf, chat and email, using the TV as background noise. Imagine if we would measure internet usage by looking at what length of time our computers are switched on.
Per, that's exactly what I do when I "watch" tv, it's just a background, like radio;
and I bet the elections played a huge role in US TV viewing numbers.
What about the rest of the world?
If we had faster internet with higher caps, i would of dumped the tv long ago. But unfortunately for South Africans we have the most expensive internet in the world.
Record year - and this is what? wave 3?
Yes definitely online video not killing TV because it depends on the viewer ,If he is in front of computer browsing Web he will view online videos even TV chahnels are coming online,when the user at home he feel relaxed by watching TV.
Wow, over 8 hours of TV viewing on average a day per household! That's terrible. What kind of society are we turning in to?