Advanced Television

Nielsen: WebTV viewers watch more regular TV

November 16, 2010

A study released by Nielsen has highlighted the 21st century TV-viewing habits of consumers who are watching shows or movies from the Internet on their TV sets. Specifically, it reveals that 84 per cent of these viewers report that they are watching the same, or more, regularly scheduled TV since they started streaming or downloading programmes or movies to watch on the TV set. Furthermore, 92 per cent of these entertainment enthusiasts subscribe to a pay TV service, with only three per cent reporting future plans to transition from their cable subscription models.

“So far Chicken Little was wrong,” said CTAM (US cable marketing association) President and CEO Char Beales. “It’s critical to our business that we deeply understand these evolving behaviours. We’ve learned that new technologies are providing additional opportunities for viewers to access TV shows and movies, at their convenience. But it’s supplementing viewing of regularly-scheduled TV, not replacing it.”

The ‘Life Is a Stream’ research, conducted by The Nielsen Company and commissioned by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), is the first to take an in-depth look at the behaviours of this viewing segment. The findings run contrary to the behaviour heavily reported in recent news stories and blog postings that suggest Internet-to-TV content consumers (11 per cent of the US population) are ‘cord-cutters’ when, in reality, most are loyal ‘cord-keepers’.

Todd Cunningham, senior vice president, strategic insights and research, MTV Networks, and one of the volunteer leaders overseeing this study added, “These consumers are feeding their insatiable entertainment appetites by viewing more and more content from the Internet on their TV sets and they’re often viewing shows they might have otherwise missed.”

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Consumer Behaviour, OTT, Research