Advanced Television

CBS: Streaming doesn’t hurt TV viewing

July 22, 2008

US network CBS says it has found streaming full-length episodes of primetime series is mostly additive for the broadcast networks and does little to threaten TV viewing. According to a report issued by CBS Interactive, less than half of the network’s online audience (46 per cent) primarily view shows online, and most say that the wide availability of these shows across the Internet does not impact their TV viewing. In fact, 35 per cent of the nearly 50,000 streamers surveyed by researcher Magid Media Labs on behalf of CBS reported that they are more likely to view shows on the network as a result of having been exposed to content online.
That’s particularly good news for CBS, which has been aggressive in both offering full-length episodes of its shows on its site and also in syndicating these shows all over the Internet as part of the CBS Audience Network.”These findings confirm what we’ve believed all along,” said David Botkin, senior VP, research & audience analytics, CBS Interactive. “Online viewing is complementary to broadcast viewing, so making our programming more accessible to people drives awareness, interest and ratings both online and on-air.”

Categories: Broadcast, IPTV, VOD