Monday September 21, 2009 – Antonette Goroch
Consumers of new media are apparently the old dogs who are learning new tricks. Now that mainstream content providers are starting to loosen their death grips on their content, new viewer habits are emerging. The folks who distribute that content via old pipelines are hopefully paying close attention because viewers are changing the rules of what it means to watch TV.
Audience measurement research from Nielson revealed audience size growth of 47% for Internet video content and 70% for mobile video content from 2008 to 2009.
That this will affect television viewing is unavoidable--the question is how.
By all accounts mobile and Internet viewing are broadening the broadcast audience overall, not cannibalizing TV viewing. Indeed, Nielsen reports that TV viewing also grew by 2h 2 min per month. This also comes as no surprise, since media technology advances typically add to, rather than take away from the audience (such as the case of the VCR and packaged video media).
What’s changing is how people are watching. One of the most significant bits of data in Nielsen’s reporting is that an average of 28% of home Internet usage is simultaneous with TV viewing. The impact of this behavior on advertising revenues is unclear. If viewers are on the Internet and watching TV simultaneously, they are undoubtedly focused more on surfing during the TV ad spots. Are viewers absorbing both inputs? Does the distraction of the Internet mean that viewers watching a program from a PVR aren’t bothering to fast forward through the ads?
What is clear is that broadcasters (of all platforms) and content providers must retool old business models to conform to this new reality. Business models need to reflect this changing dynamic in viewing audiences. Taking these changes into consideration will be the key to taking advantage of growing consumption, rather than being rendered obsolete in a changing landscape.
