A fifth of online video aficionados watch less TV as a direct result of online video, seemingly confirming the fears of TV networks that their traditional audience is moving online. A new report from Frank N. Magid Associates and Metacafe claims that online video offerings are now becoming as or more entertaining than shows on the boob tube, and the types of clips people watch online span many different genres.
The most popular online videos were not professionally produced content, according to the study. Instead, the largest chunk of survey respondents (43 percent of a nationally representative group of 2,000 people between the ages of 12 and 64) said that they regularly watched videos shot by other Joe Schmoes. Professionally produced content like news stories came in second at 32 percent and music videos were watched by 31 percent of respondents.
Short form videos also dominated eight of the top 10 genres—full-length TV shows were only watched by 25 percent of respondents on a regular basis, and full-length movies by only 15 percent. (For those curious, "adult entertainment" came in at 14 percent for respondents over 18.)
For most of these users, video viewing was additive to the traditional TV experience, but 20 percent of those who watch online video regularly said they watch less TV as a result, with males between 12 and 34 making up the largest chunk of this group. The survey describes this as a "small but significant" number; 20 percent of regular online video watchers equates to about 14 percent of the general population between ages 12 and 64.
Still, this number seems awfully high to us given other recent reports on the subject. The latest data from Nielsen says that 98.8 percent of all video is watched on a TV, with 1.1 percent on the Internet and 0.1 percent via mobile phone. The Council for Research Excellence seems to agree—in its own report issued in March, the CRE said that online video barely makes a blip on the screen compared to the hours spent watching traditional TV. That's not to say that this data is necessarily contradictory—14 percent of the total population may still be watching a good amount of TV, just a little less of it.
Given the growing popularity of video on the Internet, however, that number is sure to keep inching upward. Advertisers will eventually need to figure out a way make it as lucrative as traditional TV, even if the day when online video dominates the charts is still a ways off.
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