Commentary

Who Watches TV on TV Anymore?

Especially when you have on-demand video over broadband Internet? Telephony’s Rich Karpinski has some interesting stats in a column this week out of the TelcoTV show in San Diego.:

How’s this for layers of irony: my teenage daughter was in her room recently watching the TV show Gossip Girl on her laptop ââ?¬â?? let’s not get into exactly how ââ?¬â?? when I overheard the following line from the show: “Who watches TV on TV anymore?” (A quick Google search reveals I didn’t mishear it). That’s indeed the billion-dollar question as telecom service providers enter today’s video arena ââ?¬â?? a market that spans cable, satellite, the Internet and mobile devices. At the TelcoTV show this week, Parks Associates released some video-viewing data showing just how confusing ââ?¬â?? yet full of opportunity ââ?¬â?? today’s video market really is. According to Parks, Internet video viewing is indeed on the rise, but so is the viewing of prime-time TV shows. The research shows that 80% of adults in broadband homes do some form of Internet video viewing. Twenty-six million adult home broadband users are watching streaming TV episodes at least once a month, and about 6 million adults in broadband homes pay for premium Web video content on a monthly basis. At the same time, many of those are catching up on TV viewing they missed ââ?¬â?? with just over half (52%) watching missed episodes, while 37% liked watching shows for free, and 29% appreciated having fewer ads in Web replays.

Full article here.