Online viewing gains ground among TV watchers

Americans may love their TV sets. But more and more, they are also flipping open their laptops to watch TV shows.

According to a new study, the computer monitor, derided as a pixelated and cramped approximation of the TV set, is gaining ground on the boob tube. More than 20% of Americans watched some prime-time TV on a computer monitor during the spring TV season, up from 6% in the fall of 2007, according to the report (PDF download) from Integrated Media Measurement, a research firm in San Mateo, Calif.

"We are absolutely astounded at how fast this is happening," said Tom Zito, the firm's chief executive.

For the first time, the report's authors say, a "significant portion" of the online audience for a prime-time TV show is not also watching the show on TV. For example, last season, during a given week of the NBC show "Heroes" (pictured above), about 10% of people watched the episode for the first and only time on a computer monitor, Zito said.

Among people who turned to the Internet as a TV substitute, 50% viewed TV shows online as they became available. The other half powered up their computers to watch shows they had missed or to re-watch episodes. The study looked at the TV, Internet and cellphone media consumption of 3,000 people in six cities (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Houston and Denver) over a month during the spring TV season.

The shift to watching TV on the computer is particularly true among women, perhaps ...

... the busiest contingent. The biggest group watching TV online is comprised of white, well-educated, affluent, working women between ages 25 to 44, the study said.

Appointment TV -- when a family would sit in front of the set -- has long been on a decline, first with the VCR and then the digital video recorder. Now, for some shows, more people are watching it on the computer than recording it with a DVR. That suggests that, instead of buying a DVR, some people may be just using the computer for time-shifting, the study said.

The study throws a wrench in the television industry's assertion that by streaming programs, it is not cannibalizing its regular audience, says PaidContent.

Then again, online viewing might bring in a new audience: people who have no idea when shows such as "Heroes" air live but want to see what all the fuss is about. In fact, those who watch TV shows primarily on their computers don't watch as much TV as those who watch on their TV, the report says. Only 13.6% of online viewers are considered "heavy watchers," compared with 22% of live viewers.

What it all means is that the computer monitor might be a good enough screen. So pop the popcorn and gather around the laptop.

-- Michelle Quinn

Photo: A scene from "Heroes." Credit: NBC

Comments

[max k.]

I don't fit the primary demographic mentioned above, but there was only a brief period from about 1990 to 1995 in which I considered going to cable TV from broadcast TV. (As a grad student, broadcast TV was about all I could afford until I got a real job). After getting broadband in 1995 and seeing the video capabilities of the new operating systems of the time, I decided to put off cable and just bide my time until TV came online.

My decision was mostly affected by seeing the multitudes of worthless programming mixed in with the good on cable on a friends cable service. Paying 100% of the cost for 5% use of a product was not an option for me. The value was simply not there. Fortunately, there was really only a 5 year window in which no other option appeared on the horizon. Watching the growth of the Internet during that period, however, ended up being sufficient entertainment.

I am just glad to see TV broadcasts, after a fairly long 10 yr. wait, finally begin to emerge, legitimately and more fully, in online venues such as Joost as well as through broadcast TV sites. If such legitimate online outlets existed 10+ yrs ago, I would have been there.

And to tell the truth, I prefer my video on the sidebar anyway, as I like to multitask, often reading text essays on a topic while watching the streaming part of it. So even things like Joost are a bit retro to me for all except pure entertainment drama, but even then, I frequently like to read bio information on the side about the actors or events during the filming, and other miscellany. A historical docudrama, for example, might also prompt me to read a more comprehensive history of the matter...at the same time...as I watch. Online viewing allows me to pause, read, and watch again without having to pre-record on Tivo like devices.

It is more surprising to me that more people have not realized the freedoms of online viewing over any other broadcast or bottled venue, sooner.

[DylanE]

I get all my TV either from downloads (Amazon Unbox) or by streaming (Netflix, Hulu) but I still never watch from my laptop. I either download content directly to my TiVo or transfer it from the computer to the TiVo. The only way I can enjoy watching TV on a computer screen is if I'm watching by myself...which is something I rarely do.

[Internet TV]

Wow max k basically summed what I would have said, but I think it's arrived in full form as one would expect - it took a good deal of advances in order for it to be possible. Previous infrastructure, especially during the later 1990s, just wasn't up to snuff to support any such video platforms. Also video has really taken off principally because of the availability and adoption of broadband internet no less. Without which, video streaming would not have been possible nor sustainable as users would experience long load times, constant buffering or a variety of other problems that were seen and faced during the earlier days of the Internet.

[John E]

We pipe in the shows to our flatscreen from our laptop.