Nearly 20 percent of Americans say they watch online
By Heidi Dawley Sep 9, 2008
More Americans than ever are watching TV online, about a fifth, twice the number two years ago, despite the fact that the viewing experience doesn't come close to that of watching on a TV screen.
Just why is interesting.
As it turns out, avoiding commercials plays only a minor role, and it's actually less a factor than it was two years ago.
The big reason people watch TV online is the flexibility it affords.
A study by the Conference Board, the New York research outfit, reports that 55.4 percent of respondents said they watched TV online so they can see shows on their own schedule. Nearly as many, 52.6 percent, said they did so for personal convenience.
"It allows them tremendous flexibility in terms of where and when they watch it,” Lynn Franco, director the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, which did the study in conjunction with TNS.
“It is very fast growth. Given time pressures, and convenience factors, this is obviously a viewing preference that we expect to grow in the next several years."
The study, based on a quarterly survey of 10,000 households, found the number of folks who say they watch TV online has grown steadily over the last two years, to 19.1 percent. That's up from 15.7 percent in third-quarter 2007 and 9.7 percent in 2006.
And during that period, the number of people who said they watched online to avoid commercials actually fell, to 28 percent from 33.7 percent a year ago.
Another reason cited for watching online was portability, at 7.9 percent.
Most online TV watching still happens at home, at 90 percent, yet 15 percent said they did watch at the office and 6 percent said they also watched elsewhere, such as friends’ houses or the library.
The top destination for web watchers is the host network's homepage, at 65 percent, followed by YouTube.com at 40.8 percent.
Some 11.9 percent said iTunes, followed by 7.6 percent who said Hulu, which has content from NBC, Fox and other networks. File-sharing sites and social networking sites muster 7.4 percent and 6.7 percent respectively.
Only a small, and shrinking, percentage of people said they paid for content, either through a subscriptions service (2.0 percent) or per download (2.3 percent).
While folks are watching a wide range of content online, the top category is news, which some 42.6 percent say they watch online.
That’s followed by drama at 39.3 percent, sitcoms and comedy at 33.5 percent, and reality shows at 22.7 percent. Perhaps surprisingly, only 16.1 percent said they were watching sports content online. Some 3 percent reported watching commercials.
And contrary to perception, folks are not just tuning in for quick snippets of news and shows. In fact, 47.5 percent said they are watching entire episodes or shows. About 45 percent said they watched TV online to catch up on missed shows.
Yet for all the movement online, viewers don’t believe their internet TV viewing is changing their consumption of traditional TV.
While 10.3 percent reported they were watching less TV because of their internet viewing, some 10.8 percent said they were watching more. Overall 78.8 percent said their TV viewing was unchanged.
***
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Aug. 31, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. For the 14th straight week, the top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft.
Experian Group Limited retained the top advertiser spot for the ninth straight week with 3.19 million impressions, followed by Netflix at No. 2 with 1.76 million. With 14.21 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MSN at 2.29 million.
Sessions per person per week were down one from the previous week to 16, and domains visited per person declined one to 40. PC time per person was down 2 percent compared with the previous week to 17 hours and 46 minutes.
Top 25 parent companies Through Aug. 31
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
93,796
66.7
0:39:05
2
Microsoft
87,237
62.1
0:46:58
3
Yahoo!
78,962
56.2
1:09:05
4
Time Warner (Division)*
59,676
42.5
1:20:28
5
News Corp. Online
44,407
31.6
0:41:52
6
eBay
32,585
23.2
0:48:16
7
InterActiveCorp
31,669
22.5
0:10:47
8
Amazon
25,673
18.3
0:13:53
9
Wikimedia Foundation
23,511
16.7
0:11:18
10
Turner Network (Division)
23,397
16.6
0:18:54
11
CBS Corporation
23,270
16.6
0:10:55
12
Walt Disney Internet Group
22,986
16.4
0:26:41
13
Apple Computer
22,933
16.3
0:32:55
14
Landmark Communications
22,926
16.3
0:11:26
15
Facebook
19,711
14.0
0:44:35
16
New York Times Company
19,697
14.0
0:09:23
17
AT&T Inc.
18,515
13.2
0:20:50
18
RealNetworks, Inc.
16,029
11.4
0:15:26
19
Comcast Corp.
14,082
10.0
0:27:13
20
CraigsList
13,884
9.9
0:35:13
21
Verizon Communications
13,304
9.5
0:22:21
22
Glam Media
12,452
8.9
0:11:47
23
Bank of America
12,384
8.8
0:21:32
24
Viacom Digital
12,284
8.7
0:21:58
25
E.W. Scripps Company
11,889
8.5
0:06:32
Source: Nielsen Online
Note: The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division.
Top 25 brands Through Aug. 31
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
84,431
60.1
0:29:28
2
Yahoo!
78,081
55.5
1:09:18
3
MSN/Windows Live
67,943
48.3
0:48:30
4
AOL Media Network
53,733
38.2
1:26:51
5
Microsoft
52,378
37.3
0:15:15
6
Fox Interactive Media
37,392
26.6
0:44:06
7
YouTube
36,602
26.0
0:26:04
8
eBay
25,808
18.4
0:50:50
9
Wikipedia
23,053
16.4
0:11:19
10
Apple
22,933
16.3
0:32:55
11
Weather Channel
21,016
15.0
0:11:46
12
Amazon
20,961
14.9
0:13:32
13
Facebook
19,711
14.0
0:44:35
14
Blogger
19,625
14.0
0:06:00
15
Ask Search Network
18,308
13.0
0:10:14
16
CNN Digital Network
18,212
13.0
0:17:56
17
Real Network
16,029
11.4
0:15:26
18
Craigslist
13,881
9.9
0:35:13
19
AT&T
13,719
9.8
0:25:10
20
Glam Media
12,452
8.9
0:11:47
21
Bank of America
11,858
8.4
0:21:55
22
About.com
11,697
8.3
0:03:40
23
Comcast
10,895
7.8
0:33:39
24
Mozilla
10,841
7.7
0:03:14
25
ESPN
10,060
7.2
0:27:39
Source: Nielsen Online
Note: The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads)
Through Aug. 31
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Experian Group Limited
3,185,797
2
Netflix, Inc.
1,761,834
3
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,560,613
4
Scottrade, Inc.
1,313,303
5
NewsMax.com
1,020,077
6
General Motors Corporation
717,093
7
AT&T Corp.
649,333
8
InterActiveCorp
557,701
9
Deutsche Telekom AG
546,171
10
Ford Motor Company
509,244
11
United Online, Inc.
504,977
12
Trade-In-Value.com
483,557
13
Sprint Corporation
478,899
14
FreeScore.com
445,682
15
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
410,987
16
Vonage Holdings Corp
356,436
17
Mighty Net, Inc
350,080
18
Microsoft Corporation
341,321
19
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
328,627
20
Fandango, Inc.
327,429
21
National Council on Problem Gambling
321,149
22
Citigroup Inc.
297,991
23
Time Warner Inc.
294,343
24
American Express Company
293,769
25
Nike, Inc.
263,194
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads)
Through Aug. 31
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
14,214,060
2
MSN
2,287,491
3
MSNBC
1,905,405
4
MySpace
1,601,315
5
Comcast.net
1,573,941
6
AOL.com
1,138,663
7
FOXNEWS.COM
784,024
8
Facebook
729,959
9
IMDb
518,946
10
eBay
489,325
11
The Weather Channel
377,625
12
ESPN.com
342,021
13
NeoPets
339,212
14
The Weather Underground
302,765
15
NBC
300,386
16
Juno
298,140
17
CNN
294,855
18
Amazon
275,606
19
AT&T Worldnet
250,770
20
Project Playlist
245,505
21
YouTube
238,032
22
CNBC
236,061
23
Photobucket
233,178
24
Charter.net
226,437
25
Pogo
210,727
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
