More online video watching won't hurt live TV, DVD demand
Video Business
By Danny King -- Video Business, 1/8/2009 2:51:00 PM
JAN. 8 | In a world of media consumption, the computer screen and television are not mortal enemies. In fact, they are compatriots.
People who watch long-form content on their PCs are more likely to watch rented DVDs, video-on-demand content and live programming on their televisions than the overall population, according to a report released by pay-cable network Starz Entertainment this week. Additionally, live TV viewing will rise in the next five years despite content distributors' and component makers' efforts to create more methods to send digital content from the Internet into the living room.
About 77% of those who watch long-form content either on their computers or on mobile devices watch live television at least once a week, compared with 74% for everyone else, according to the report. Meanwhile, long-form content consumers are 90% more likely to watch live TV on a premium cable network, and more than twice as apt to watch a rented DVD or video on demand on their televisions than everyone else, Starz said, citing a poll of 5,500 people taken in September and October. Starz is a unit of Liberty Media.
The findings spell good news for both television networks and a U.S. DVD industry where spending was down 2.4% through the first three quarters of last year, according to data compiled by Video Business and Rentrak.
Additionally, live television viewing will rise over the next few years. About 87% of those polled will watch at least as much live television in five years as they do now while 88% will watch more live TV from a premium cable network.
This rise in live-TV watching will occur despite what's expected to be a growing propensity to watch digital content on TV sets instead of computer screens due to efforts from content distributors like Netflix and Amazon.com and from TV makers like LG Electronics and Sony.
The number of programs video-streamed or downloaded by broadband customers to their televisions will jump tenfold between next year and 2013 as content distributors, television-service providers and television makers all make it easier for customers to access the Web from their living rooms, ABI Research said in a report last month. The average customer will watch about 140 downloaded or streamed videos on their televisions in 2013, up from about 17 next year, ABI said.
