To get a better sense for how the world is watching video, today, Nielsen recently completed a survey of more than 27,000 online consumers in 55 countries, asking simple questions about how they watch video. Internet access still varies considerably by region, so the results of an online survey are not representative of the total global population, but show us how an important subset of the global population (the connected population) is consuming video across multiple platforms. The results from the survey, with corresponding syndicated Nielsen insights where available, were released today in a new report, “How People Watch – A Global Nielsen Consumer Report.”

“This report provides one of the broadest looks at how consumers watch video, to date,” says Matt O’Grady, who oversees the integration of Nielsen’s TV, online and mobile audience measurement. “The research reveals how connected consumers all over the world are expanding their video experience across screens.”

Key Findings

• Online Video: approximately 70% of global online consumers watch online video; but North Americans and Europeans lag in adoption. More than half of global online consumers watch online video in the workplace.
• Mobile Video: is already used by 11% of global online consumers: penetration is highest in Asia-Pacific and among consumers in their late 20s.
• Tablet PCs: are expanding the definition of mobile video. Globally, 11% of online consumers already own or plan to purchase a tablet PC (such as an iPad) in the next year.
• Television: is a universally important platform for video consumption, with connected consumers in many markets spending 4+ hours per day watching television.
• HDTV (High-Definition TV): is improving the TV viewing experience for as many as 30% of global online consumers. Adoption is highest among older consumers and in North America, where HD content has proliferated.
• 3DTV (Three-Dimensional TV): will have a small but important audience: 12% of global online consumers own or have definite intent to purchase a 3DTV in the next year.
• “Over the Top” TV: televisions with Internet connections are gaining interest. About one in five (22%) global online consumers owns or has definite interest in buying a television with Internet connection in the next year.

For the first time, this report identifies important differences in cross-platform video behavior by region and country:

• Claimed TV viewership is higher than average in the emerging BRIC economies, Brazil, Russia, India and China, and lower than average in many developed European markets
• North America and Europe appear to lag slightly behind other regions in the use of online and mobile video
• Connected consumers in Asia-Pacific are 45 percent more likely to use mobile video than the global average
• Claimed interest for Tablet PCs is highest in MEAP markets: Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. Connected Pakistanis are twice as likely as the global population to say they own or are interested in a Tablet PC.
• Connected Latin American consumers express above average interest in TVs with Internet connections. Online Consumers in Colombia, in particular, are very interested in acquiring this technology.

• Download “How People Watch – A Global Nielsen Consumer Report“

12-24 year olds are more connected, more tech savvy, and more likely to use personal devices such as smartphones, laptops and other gadgets for video viewing. They are also less likely to watch traditional television. But much of this is driven by economic necessity and lifestyle choices, and is likely to change as the younger becomes the older generation.

Young people’s media habits seem to have more to do with their specific life stage than with their particular generation. Teens living at home tend to watch more TV overall than 18-24 year olds busy with college or their first jobs. But the “first screen,” TV, is less central to both. That may be because they either don’t have a TV in their bedrooms or dorm rooms, or because they have to negotiate control of the remote with others in their household. Lower TV viewing by 18-24 year olds may also be due to the fact that they tend to be out-and-about more than older folks (especially during prime time).

Terrill argued that as these same cohorts age and settle down, they will watch more TV. After all, they finally have the time, opportunity, and financial ability to control that first screen.

The thesis is borne out by the behavior of previous generations, who started out watching low levels of television and then watched more as they aged.

The teens of 2001 watched less than 25 hours of television a week but by 2009 as they aged into 18-24s, they were watching 31 hours of television. Even more dramatically, the young adults of 2001 watched less than 25 hours of television but watched more than 36 hours a week of television as they aged into the 25-35 cohort.

The proliferation of video across the site, from the President’s weekly video address to video segments on the site’s blog, has helped spur this impressive growth. Unique viewers of video content increased 236 percent month-over-month, growing from 75,000 in February to 252,000 in March 2009, while total video streams increased 350 percent during the same time period.

Unique Video Viewers and Total Video Streams at WhiteHouse.gov 

So who is viewing video at WhiteHouse.gov? Viewers of video content at the site over-indexed among males and people between the ages of 35 and 49 and those over 65 in March. Unique viewers 35 to 49 were 78 percent more likely to view video on whitehouse.gov than the average viewer, while people 65 and older were 48 percent more likely.

Unique Viewer Composition Index by Demographic Group for WhiteHouse.gov

Average Composition Index is 100

Another new video feature on whitehouse.gov, Open for Questions, was launched this March. It is a section of the Web site in which the President addresses questions posed by citizens via online video. Open for Questions was one of the top subdomains visited within WhiteHouse.gov, receiving 618,000 unique visitors during the month.

Nielsen Online CEO John Burbank takes a look at the economic and advertising impacts of the report.

Highlights Of The Report Include

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.
• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period.
• In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent, the number of streams grew 41 percent, the streams per user grew 27 percent and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71 percent.
• There are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to those sites.
• In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73 percent.
• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

Read the full report.

Download the full press release