People Increasingly Turn To Computers For TV

If you watched the lead-in to "My Name is Earl" last night, you know that (a) Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, isn’t terribly funny, and (b) his network is pushing online video. But even with Zucker’s "The Office"-gone-bad awkwardness, it seems the act of watching television online is becoming more popular.

Jeff Zucker

A new report from the Convergence Consulting Group states, "We estimate online viewing of full-episode Broadcast/Cable Network TV as a percentage of the traditional TV base was 9% in 2007 (6% in 2006), and we forecast 14% for 2008, 19% for 2009, and 23% for 2010."

Or, in other words: by the end of the decade, about one out of every four times somebody sits down to watch a show, they’ll be facing either a computer monitor or a television connected to a computer.

Assuming the report is reliable ("[s]ources include hundreds of company interviews, quarterly, annual reports & presentations," and Convergence contacted around 1,000 consumers), this stat is something content creators will want to keep in mind. Advertisers should also pay attention to the trend, of course. It even seems they can get a deal, since "US online TV advertising . . . revenues represented 2% ($1.4 billion) of US Broadcast/Cable Network TV advertising revenue in 2007."

A hat tip goes to Jacqui Cheng, and a polite suggestion that Jeff Zucker stay off the air may be in order, as well.

There are 3 Comments. Add Yours.

Chris Potter
April 5, 2008 at 11:39 pm

We estimate in 2007 that 9% of TV viewers had also watched full-episode Broadcast/Cable Network TV online, up from 6% in 2006; we forecast 14% for 2008, 19% for 2009, and 23% for 2010.

We are not saying that these percentages represent all TV viewing.

Chris Potter, Convergence Consulting
Smilyn
April 6, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Most TV shows that would get increased viewing from Australia have blocked overseas visitors from watching. This prevents people from following their favourite shows that may not be airing in Australia anymore or are miles behind in eposides.

I say open this up to everyone and then there may be a bigger shift of users watching TV online. I’d happy watch more TV shows online even if it had the addition of advertisements throughout. I don’t expect to get stuff totally free.
Marius Purcaru
April 7, 2008 at 2:44 pm

I have stopped watching movies on tv (or even shows…) just because of the commercial waves that run into our house… It seems that online you don’t have that much of them, so… I’ve decided long time ago to cut the TV and to jump on the online "combat".

I still hope that the commercials will have their own place, since at this moment, they are really forcing people to eat their contents, although most of them don’t need it or want it.