Do We Watch the Web the Same Way We Watch TV? Not Really

February 4, 2010

Jon Gibs, Vice President for Insights, Online and Cross Media

While we are not yet spending 90% of our time watching “glowing rectangles” as The Onion joked last year, Americans are consuming more and more video across all three screens (TV, Web, Mobile) according to our recent A2/M2 Three Screen Report. But do we watch TV online the same way we watch on our living room TV?

Looking at Nielsen’s online panel data of U.S. visitors to online TV sites (ABC.com, CBS.com, CWTV.com, Hulu.com, or NBC.com) in the last 30 days, we actually found more differences than similarities when it came to viewing behavior, demographics, and even ad effectiveness. Demographically, those watching online TV Network video are closer to DVR users by gender breaks, but closer to the general online population relative to age.

The broader usage patterns suggest that online video is, for the most part, a replacement of DVR use, or used by those who do not have immediate access to TV. In short, TV network content online is used to catch up with programming, and not typically as a replacement for TV viewing as results from our email survey showed.

What are some of the reasons you watch
TV shows on the Internet?
Question %
I forgot to watch a specific episode when it aired on TV 54%
I am catching up on the current season of programming because I missed a large number of episodes 47%
I am catching up on a past season of a program before the next season airs 33%
I forgot to record a specific episode with my DVR or TiVo when it aired on TV 32%
Another member of my household watches another program at the same time as the show I want to watch 18%
I watch TV programming online when I am at work 12%
I watch TV programming online when I travel 12%
Source: The Nielsen Company – January 2009


When We Watch
Online TV Network consumption appears to be an activity set aside in specific sessions from most other online activities. When we go online to watch TV shows, that activity dominates that particular online session, with women and the 18-34 crowd spending the biggest parts of their sessions on network viewing.

Percent of Session Time Watching Video
On Broadcast Site When Session Involves
Broadcast Site Viewing
Average 73%
Men 75%
Women 69%
Age 2-11 50%
Age 12-17 71%
Age 18-24 78%
Age 25-34 79%
Age 35-49 69%
Age 50-64 68%
Age 65+ 59%
Source: The Nielsen Company – January 2009

While many of us may watch TV with friends or family members, the viewing of TV shows online proves to be a rather solitary activity. This may change as internet connectivity to our main TV screens becomes more ubiquitous, but right now, the majority of online viewers prefer to be alone.

solitaryviewing

Advertising Impact
TV commercial spots reused online appear to be more impact on recall and likeability than creative just designed for online as this case study with food and beverage ads shows.

ad-performance

This look into the similarities and differences of TV viewing on the web should be a reminder to brand managers that “context” is just as much king these days as content.

For more insights, download Nielsen reports and webinars, or contact us.
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  • Greg

    I may be in the minority, but I only watch television on DVR, Hulu, or similar websites. Therefore, advertisements aired online have a more significant impact than ads aired on television; the reason being that you can fast forward through commercials on DVR, but you’re forced to endure them online. I’m wondering whether this will eventually have any effect on the value of online advertising, whether its “web-original” or reused from TV.

    Also, the only commercials I watch on television are during sporting events, as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NHL are the only programs I watch live. I’m curious whether this is common and whether it will effect the value of ad-space; in other words, whether the presence of DVR & Hulu will add another qualitative value to the Nielsen ratings.

  • http://www.r2.co.nz richie

    interesting reading – but what about the video content thats not TV shows and appears only on the web. It has completely different viewing characteristics. Typically viewed alone, and viewed because the viewer WANTS to watch it.

    We produce “internet media” that goes online for clients and often gets used by TV shows. But the production focus is online. It has different production and presentation values.

    And our business sees steady growth.

  • http://www.theNRGgroup.net Nina Gerwin

    Thanks for all of your wonderful insights. I just love this industry!

    These results certainly make sense when you think about who these folks generally are: dedicated TV viewers and people who follow specific TV shows.

    Dedicated TV viewers means that they have probably already seen the repurposed TV ads shown; therefore, their recall of those spots would be much higher than say, their first time viewing an original internet ad. If you ran that survey on a different site that was dedicated to original video content, then the results would probably be very different.

    Marketing is all about understanding who your customers are. Equally important is to understand the audience of where you want to advertise. If someone loves Lost, then they’ll generally watch Lost on TV (where they probably learned about it in the first place); on cable on-demand; online; and now mobile, iPad, iPods. People love their content and are becoming platform agnostic as to how/where they view it. The point being, find your customers wherever they spend their time and speak to them there.

    Couldn’t find the trackback url and the link doesn’t do it either. Here’s my blog post on this really interesting survey! http://wp.me/pxoDD-5n

  • http://twitter.com/eadsd @eadsd

    I'm sure I'm in the minority, but my entire family only watches TV online now (and has since about September 2009). When we installed AT&T Uverse for other reasons in January, we got their video service and liked it. However, we found that we were used to just going to Hulu, ABC.com or CastTV to watch what we felt like when we wanted to watch it and video service wasn't worth it for the money.

    There's still room for online to improve (NFL, CNBC, for example). But generally, it works well as a "lean-back" experience in the right setting.

    BTW – I have realized I watch far more commercials online than when I was using a DVR.

  • http://www.trendsspotting.com Dr. Taly Weiss

    Are the results reported derive from a 2009 survey (as presented in the above tables) or from Nielsen's 2010 data?

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