Advanced Television

PWC: 20 hours a week accessing digital content

March 8, 2011

According to a US consumer research study from PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) consumers are spending about 20 hours per week accessing digital content – including video games and print content – on a mobile phone, computer, or mobile device, with the majority of that TV shows, movies and other videos.

That is The study found that across all age groups, respondents watched 12.4 hours of TV shows/videos and movies online, while only 8.9 hours of that content on network TV and basic and pay cable.

Not surprisingly, the 44 and under crowd do the majority of that digital viewing, but even the 45-59 age group was close to even, with 9 hours of traditional video watching vs. 8.3 hours of online video viewing.

Mobile devices trailed as the screen of preference, in line with PWC’s forecasts that mobile TV is a very small percentage (1 per cent) of the total TV subscription marketplace. The study found that 80 per cent of respondents would not pay a premium for early access to content on their mobile device.

When asked about the ways they obtain movie content, only 12.9 per cent cited purchasing via VOD from their cable company, which put that ninth on the list behind streaming from Hulu for free (30.7 per cent), renting from an actual brick and mortar store (23.3 per cent), or borrowing one from a friend or relative (19.8 per cent). The two top answers were renting an actual copy from a Netflix (42.6 per cent) and renting an online copy (31.7 per cent).

The study was based on a survey of 560 people.

The FCC has been promoting moving broadcasters off some of their spectrum to free it up for high-bandwidth broadband delivery of, among other things, video. It has also in the midst of a proceeding to figure out how to unite online and traditional video through the TV set to use that as a way to drive broadband adoption given that 99 per cent of homes have a TV set already, while only 75 per cent-80 per cent have a computer.

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Mobile, OTT, Portable Media, Research, VOD