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Watching TV Online
October 15, 2007

How annoyed are TV viewers with commercials? Enough to send them to the Internet.

A new survey shows that online audiences of TV programs have doubled in the last year, with 16 percent of all Internet users now watching TV episodes online.

It's easy to find television episodes online. You can buy them for about $1.99 each from places like iTunes, Amazon.com, and Bittorrent.com, or go straight to network websites, like NBC.com and ABC.com, and watch streamed episodes that have a fraction of the advertising breaks than on television.

That's not to mention the throngs of illegitimate torrent-based websites out there.

Those who are watching TV online, myself included, generally cite personal convenience as their main reason for doing so. That ranked 75 percent of the respondents who returned their survey forms. More than a third of the respondents said they watched online to avoid commercials.

The quarterly report by The Conference Board and TNS is based on a survey of 10,000 households.

"Although online television viewing is still not a widespread phenomenon, the proportion of users has increased since 2006 and is likely to increase over time, given consumers' love for entertainment," said Lynn Franco, Director of the non-profit Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

The top methods for viewing broadcasts online are streaming and free downloading. Some people enrolled in pay per download and subscription services, though they are much less prevelent, the survey found.

About two-thirds of viewers stream online content, and more than 40 percent download content for free.

The survey revealed that 42 percent of online users say they watch TV online to catch up on a missed episode, which was up from 30 percent a year ago.

Watching entire TV episodes has replaced the news as the most widely viewed content online.

"Over the next few years, the growing popularity of viewing TV episodes and shows online is going to have a huge impact on the way brands and advertisers communicate with viewers," says Shari Morwood, E.V.P. of Technology, Telecommunications and Media at TNS. "If advertisers can effectively leverage the online video platform, we should see much more interactivity and emotional connection between brands and the online TV viewing audience. On a broader scale, we will also see changes in viewing preferences, including TV on mobile devices, as media, telecom, and technology increasingly converge."

The not-for-profit, Conference Board is a business membership organization, producing for example, the Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators for the U.S. and other major nations. TNS provides custom research and analysis in consumer electronics.

Posted by Ned Randolph on October 15, 2007 | Comments (1)