] HipMojo.com » Push vs. Pull: Online video ‘eroding TV viewing’

Push vs. Pull: Online video ‘eroding TV viewing’

BBC is reporting the obvious here, but it’s worth noting nonetheless that the ICM conducted a survey of 2,070 people for the BBC and it appears that indeed, online video is eroding some viewership from TV.

The blogosphere is buzzing aplenty (I’d adding links for your info and so I can return and read what everyone is saying): Mashable!, Digital World, i-boy, John Furrier, Digital Micro-Markets, Mathew Ingram, Urlocker On Disruption, InterActive Home, Reel Pop, Bloggers Blog, Tech Digest, The Utube Blog, Podcasting News and Slashdot.

But, it’s interesting to cross reference some of these findings with what CBS came out and said last week: that YouTube has lead to an increase in viewers for Letterman and Comedy Central.  Of course, the online video is growing too quickly and TV, well, blows hard, so you can come up with many conclusions.

Note one thing: when I say TV blows hard, I am not referring to programming: there is good, bad and ugly programming on TV same way that content on the Web can be good as it can outright suck.  My reference has more to do with the “video when we say so” format of TV vs. “video when you want it” format of the Web.

Take Kramer’s racial tirade: when I heard about it, I went online.  When Bush says something stupid: I go online to find it.  When news breaks somewhere: I go online.

All to say, when viewers are into a “pull” mindset, they go online.  TV is becoming increasingly a “push” delivery format.  If you are an advertiser, what do you think you prefer?

Bottom line: take all of these stats and findings with a grain of salt.  TV ain’t going anywhere, though maybe the programming limitations and lack of real options for viewers needs to be changed… and by options, I am not referring to things like DVRs alone (Tivo etc)., I mean real choices: turn on my TV and decide that I want to watch Seinfeld episode X, or watch a documentary on the Seven Wonders of the World etc… after all, the web has great content, I am biased and produce content on WatchMojo.com, but I will be the first to say that we’re not going to put any old media firms out of business by virtue of the quality alone [tag in “understatement” of the year].  But we will beat them (big WE, the Web) by giving people the choice to watch what they want, when they want it.

If TV really wants to avoid such erosion, they will start thinking of programming in a whole new way.

Side note: this was done in the UK from November 17-19, where men prefer watching football on the telly more than having sex, so I’d check to see what mindset the surveyed were in before coming up with too many conclusions…

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Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Nov 27th

One Response to “Push vs. Pull: Online video ‘eroding TV viewing’”

  1. George Nimeh Says:
    November 27th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

    Hi,

    One thing is for sure, I think folks like the BBC need to ask the right questions.

    Of course people who watch more online video will watch less TV. There are only 24 hours in a day. But, what TV do those folks choose to watch? Are they influenced by what they’ve seen on the internet? Are they more likely to check out a show that they’ve seen/previewed online? Do they tell other people about what they’ve seen.

    More here:
    http://www.i-boy.com/weblog/2006/11/bbc-vs-cbs.html

    ~G~

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