| Internet Grows in Popularity for Watching TV Shows |
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While television is still a staple of Americans' entertainment diet, the popularity of Internet video is growing quickly, particularly TV shows rebroadcast online, says the recent eMarketer.com article, "What's on the Internet Tonight?"
Citing a study by The Conference Board and TNS, eMarketer reports that about 16 percent of U.S. households with Internet access watch TV programs online. "Although online TV viewing is still not a widespread phenomenon," says Lynn Franco, director of consumer research at The Conference Board, "the proportion of users has increased since 2006 and is likely to increase over time, given consumers' love of entertainment." As of Q3 2007, episodic television was the most popular online video content, surpassing news, which was most popular as of Q3 2006. Despite viewers' growing appetite for online video, eMarketer Senior Analyst Paul Verna doesn't see the trend as a threat to TV ratings. "Rather than a wholesale shift in viewership from TV to the new-media channels," he says, "both media will actually grow in the next several years. There will be 200 million broadband Internet users by 2011, eMarketer projects. And 183 million, or 91 percent, will watch online videos. |