The future of television as an entertainment source
Over the years, television has been used by the public for a range of different forms of entertainment. Television entertains through its drama productions, competitions, game and quiz shows, music and variety shows, and talk shows featuring celebrities and public figures and through its talent contests and reality programming featuring members of the public. The provision of entertainment is regularly endorsed by viewers as one of the most important aspects of the medium (Ofcom, 2004, 2009d). Of course the quality of entertainment programming can vary widely. One factor underpinning ‘quality’ is cost as some productions are much more expensive to produce than others. For high quality drama, large budgets are virtually unavoidable. In an increasingly competitive and fragmented marketplace, the revenues earned by major television broadcasters diminish and this places them under considerable strain in terms of continued provision of entertainment programming at the high-cost end of the production spectrum (Ofcom, 2004).
In a multi-channel television environment in which significant numbers of television channels routinely achieve very small audiences, revenues earned from advertising or sponsorship are also limited. This, in turn, places severe restrictions on the kinds of programmes that can be purchased. Original productions, for most channels, are beyond their financial capabilities, unless they comprise extremely low-budget programmes (Ofcom, 2004, 2008, 2009a).
The emergence of the Internet has opened up a vast new source of entertainment covering a variety of different genres and formats. In addition, new concepts in entertainment production have been tested through this medium. The greater interactivity of the technology has opened up significant new forms of audience engagement in entertainment. These applications include giving viewers opportunities to choose between different programme endings and to determine the directions of new plot lines in dramas. The empowerment of users observed in connection within online news has its own manifestations in the entertainment sphere. The early popularisation of computers among the general public was founded not in formal educational or business applications, but through entertainment via gaming (Gunter, 1998; Laurel, 1993).
Computer games exploded during the 1980s and their prevalence grew still further in the 1990s (Gunter, 1998) while stand-alone games played via portable devices or hooked up to the TV set migrated online after the public adoption of the Internet in the mid-1990s. Individuals could play games that were streamed online either on their own or in competition with many hundreds and even thousands of other players from all around the world. Electronic games evolved into virtual worlds that enticed users by giving them opportunities to become part of the entertainment rather than simply observers of it. While television programmes could draw in their audiences emotionally through cultivating parasocial links to on-screen actors, computer games allowed users to go one step further by becoming actors on-screen themselves. Not only that, but when played online such games could open up opportunities for users to engage directly with other gamers in real time, creating a dynamic unfolding dramatic narrative that could change unpredictably from moment to moment.
The big question that arises out of such developments is whether they pose a threat to traditional forms of televised entertainment. Can these conventional forms of television entertainment survive? If they are to survive must they evolve? If they must evolve, in the face of the new styles of entertainment being adopted by current generations of viewers, in what ways must this happen? Once again, when considering the evidence for consumer preferences between different media and different types of content, it is important to examine carefully the nature of the supporting data. Some evidence is based on consumers’ opinions about what types of entertainment they use and like most. Other evidence is based on self-perceived displacement effects of the emergence of a new entertainment source on an older one. Yet further evidence derives from more sophisticated analyses of relationships between reported levels of use of different media.
Perceived importance of different entertainment sources
Audits of entertainment seeking have shown that people living in developed countries have access to a wide range of leisure activities and sources of entertainment. As one UK study showed, many people engage regularly with traditional forms of entertainment such as listening to radio (51%), reading books (47%), newspapers (41%) and magazines (35%) and going to the cinema (21% regularly; 35% occasionally). At the same time many regularly engage with newer online media for leisure and entertainment purposes, including browsing social network sites (34% regularly; 19% occasionally), visiting newspaper websites (24% regularly; 26% occasionally), playing offline games on a PC (21% regularly; 26% occasionally), playing online games on a PC (20% regularly; 21% occasionally), listening to radio streamed online (18% regularly; 26% occasionally), and playing games on their mobile phone (12% regularly; 20% occasionally) (Entertainment Media Research, 2008). Although the new media activities individually were endorsed by fewer people than the old media activities, given the range of new media activities and the likelihood that it would not always be the same people engaging in each of these activities, the overall reach of new media in aggregate is likely to compare with that for old media.
What was also significant was that the new media offered an enormous range of leisure activities that dwarf the opportunities provided via old media. Moreover, among these online activities were many involving audio-visual entertainment content (Entertainment Media Research, 2008). Internet users, regularly or occasionally went online to watch TV programmes (18%) and movies (16%). Thus, not only might new media time displace television with alternative entertainment activities, but also functionally by providing the same content over a different technology platform.
A number of studies have provided data on the importance that people attach to entertainment on television and on that provided via the Internet. Research among viewers in the UK asked respondents to rate the importance of a range of programme genres on television (Ofcom, 2007a). Respondents rated the personal importance of each genre as well as their perceptions of how important each genre was to society. The findings covered opinions about a number of entertainment-oriented programmes. The previous chapter reported findings from the same survey for information-oriented programmes. With the latter genres, there were more prevalent endorsements of the personal importance than of the societal importance of these programmes. With entertainment-oriented programmes, the reverse pattern emerged. In general, endorsement of the societal importance of entertainment-oriented genres was more widespread than indications of personal importance. This was true for films (51% versus 18%), comedy (50% versus 28%), drama (41% versus 19%), soap operas (40% versus 14%) and sport (41% versus 28%). These findings are interesting for the reversal of opinions about news and entertainment. The tendency to admit to greater personal importance for news than for entertainment signals an inclination to articulate ‘worthy’ opinions in regard to the types of programmes rated as most important to self as opposed to important to people in general (‘others’). This type of finding is illustrative of the ‘third person effect’ in its consistency with evidence that people tend to deny personal influence in terms of undesirable effects of the media, but acknowledge them in the case of positive media effects. At the same time, ‘others’ are perceived to be at greater risk of harmful effects than ‘self’, but less susceptible to socially desirable influences (Paul, Salwen and Dupagne, 2000; Salwen and Dupagne, 1999). Such responses demonstrate a tendency towards self-image protection (Perloff, 2002)
The perceived importance of the Internet for entertainment can vary with the extent to which it is used. Thus, Canadian research has shown that people who average more than seven hours online per week were much more likely to rate the Internet as ‘extremely important’ as an entertainment source than were those who went online on average less than two hours per week (43% versus 9%). The same research also showed that there were marked age group differences in the importance attached to the Internet as an entertainment provider. Adult Internet users aged 18 to 34 years (43%) were much more likely to regard the Internet as an ‘extremely important’ entertainment source than were those aged 55 and over (12%). While these data show that the Internet is defined by some of its users as an important entertainment source, the research did not define what was meant by ‘entertainment’ here. Perhaps also significant in the context of the theme of this book was that Internet users (62%) differed hardly at all from non-users (60%) in the extent to which they rated television as an important source of entertainment (Zamaria et al., 2005).
In Sweden, Findahl (2008) reported that the Internet was rated behind television (highest), newspapers, friends/family and radio as an important source of entertainment, but finished ahead of radio and on equal pegging with newspapers and family/friends among respondents aged 18 to 29 years. Television still held on to top spot even among young adults.
The importance of entertainment provision on television is underlined not simply by public opinion but also by the behaviour of viewers. Multi-channel television packages have eroded the audiences for the longer-established channels in major media markets such as the UK and USA, but entertainment programming continues to thrive. Data for the UK even show that entertainment genres are major drivers of the successes enjoyed by new channels in multi-channel television environments. Between 2003 and 2008, there was a 21 per cent increase in the viewer hours devoted to entertainment genres. This increase occurred both for the five terrestrial public service broadcasting channels, BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five, as well as for newer channels in multi-channel packages (Ofcom, 2009a).
The significance of entertainment programming on television was further underlined by data showing that it was the only content category that experienced a growth in audience share (+ 6.5%) in multi-channel television homes in the UK between 2003 and 2008 (Ofcom, 2009a). While the relative fortunes of different channels varied across this period, as did their relative contribution to the overall share of audience achieved by entertainment programmes, the category itself grew stronger over time. The popularity of entertainment programmes on television has also driven a growth in the number of entertainment-oriented television channels. By 2008, there were 39 entertainment channels on UK television, a two-thirds increase on 2003. Numbers of channels in other programme categories also increased during this period, but their audience shares declined (Ofcom, 2009a). Hence, it is not simply a case that entertainment programming audiences have risen with increased supply. Increased supply elsewhere failed to produce the same impact on audiences, which indicates that entertainment content has intrinsic appeal which has grown stronger even in an increasingly crowded media environment.
The Internet as an entertainment source
Some observed trends in the use of online sources of ‘entertainment’, if they can be verified, could have significant implications for the future role of television as an entertainment medium.Changing Media (2007)noted three particularly interesting trends in this context: a growing taste for more dynamic forms of entertainment available on demand; increased engagement with user-generated content; and finally a demand for broadcast content to be made available online. Research among Internet users has identified the most prevalent (and presumably popular) forms of online entertainment as music downloading, playing games, listening to radio online, and downloading videos. Men have been found to engage in these online activities more often than women. These interactive online behaviours are more prevalent among younger than older Internet users (Dutton and Helsper, 2007).
Video viewing online
The Internet can provide users with a variety of forms of dynamic audiovisual entertainment. These include online games (including gambling) that sometimes take place in virtual environments, music videos, and online movies and television services. Clearly any online entertainment activity that involves video content must be regarded as a potential competitor to television. How serious a threat this phenomenon might pose to conventional viewing via TV sets depends upon whether the video content is the property of mainstream television broadcasters or derives from a different supplier. The risk to mainstream television consumption also depends upon how attractive the online viewing options are rated alongside regular television viewing.
If Internet video entertainment services cater to different needs and gratifications among media consumers, they may represent a niche that is distinct from conventional television viewing. There could then be space for both types of entertainment platform with displacement occurring only if preferred times of day for consumption for each platform display a significant degree of overlap. If online video entertainment caters to the same needs and gratifications as regular television and does so more effectively or in a more appealing fashion, then media consumers may prefer the online option for their entertainment regardless of time of day when entertainment consumption usually occurs. The latter scenario could pose a greater threat to conventional television.
Research into the use of video entertainment formats on the Internet has indicated that online media consumers seek out both traditional and newer forms of content (Simply/Work, 2008). Traditional television and movie content is available online and is widely utilised. In addition, Internet users seek out video content that derives from a producer base other than mainstream broadcasters or film producers. Popular sites such as YouTube provide access predominantly to user-generated content. Although video material originally made for television or the cinema is available via this site, most of its content derives from the work of independent, amateur producers.
Thus, some online video users seek out short-form video clips which they will watch while doing other things. Others report using online video content in a more precise functional way often connected to information gathering on topics of special interest. Yet others engage in long-form video viewing and go online to catch-up with programmes they missed when initially broadcast on television (Simply/Work, 2008). In the latter case, the personal computer takes on the role of a TV. Despite the informational utility of online video content, qualitative research has indicated that it frequently has an entertainment function. Moreover, long-form viewing reportedly frequently took place at the same times as regular broadcast TV viewing which meant that watching programmes on a computer had become an alternative behaviour to watching via a TV set (Simply/Work, 2008).
The significance of the Internet as a source of entertainment has been explored in different ways utilising different methodologies. Much of the evidence that derives from the more academic end of the research spectrum has tended to rely upon the self-reported media behaviours of survey respondents. Some industry-derived research has also utilised this type of evidence. In addition, industry research has tracked levels of real-time offline and online media behaviours using more continuous forms of audience measurement.
The self-report evidence has the advantage of yielding data about the use of different media by individual media consumers. Such research can examine directly at the level of the individual how much and in what direction the use of one medium is related to the use of another. The main limitation of this type of research is that it depends upon respondents’ self-reports or personal memories of their media behaviour and there is often no way of telling how accurate these reports might be.
Continuous audience measurement is less prone to memory-related errors and in the case of automatic electronic encoding of media consumers’ activities, as in the online world, is immune from such errors. At the same time this form of measurement rarely provides an opportunity to determine whether greater use of one medium results directly in reduced use of another.
Self-report measurement of online video viewing
Research conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicated continued growth in the use of video online, such as YouTube and Google Video, among Internet users in the United States. More than six in ten adult American Internet users (62%) claimed to have watched video on these sites (Madden, 2009). This represented a significant increase on the user level observed at the end of 2006 (33%). Use of these online video sites was especially prevalent among young adults, aged 18 to 29 years (89%). Watching video like YouTube online was more prevalent than use of social networking sites (46% of adult American Internet users).
Jones and Fox (2009) reported further evidence from the Pew Internet and American Life project concerning the prevalence of online video use that indicated that although still most prevalent among young Internet users, it is a phenomenon that is also catching on among older Internet users. The research distinguished between a number of generations: Generation Y (aged 18 to 32), Generation X (aged 33 to 44), Young Boomers (aged 45 to 54), Older Boomers (aged 55 to 63), Silent Generation (aged 64 to 72), and G. I. Generation (aged 73 +). In 2007, Generations Y (38%) and X (31%) were more likely to claim ever to download videos when online than were older generations. What was more significant, however, were the rates of increase in this activity among some of the oldest Internet users. In 2007, nearly one in seven (13%) of G. I. Generation Internet users (aged 73 +) reported that they downloaded videos, an increase of one per cent on 2005. Silent Generation Internet users (aged 64–72) exhibited a more marked increased in video downloading over the same period (8% to 13%).
In the UK, data derived from Nielsen NetRatings’ continuous online behaviour tracker indicated that the video websites attracting the most online traffic comprised a mixture of established broadcasters and new online suppliers (Changing Media (2007)). YouTube, with 9.4 million visitors logged in September 2007 finished in first place ahead of the BBC (6.7 million users). Other major broadcasters, such as Sky (3.0 million users), ITV and Channel 4 (2.1 million users each) occupied fourth, fifth and sixth positions in the top ten. Google Video, already noted as a favourite among Internet users in the USA, was in seventh position in the UK (with 1.8 million users).
These ‘reach’ figures of course simply indicate the proportions of Internet users who ever sought out video materials online. If this behaviour is to have any significance in terms of how it might challenge more established video-related viewing behaviour via TV sets, we need to have some idea about the frequency with which it occurs. The Pew research reported that around one in five adult American Internet users in 2009 (19% and up from 6% in 2006) claimed to watch video online at least every day. This proportion was much higher among the 18 to 29 s (36%).
Online video use is an active behaviour whereby the people who engage in it do not simply spend their time online seeking out content for themselves; they also share what they find with others. Hence there is a social dimension to online video behaviour. This behaviour exhibited a marked increase in prevalence across all age groups. Young adult Internet users became increasingly likely to engage in video sharing everyday (36% in 2009 compared with 30% in 2008). However, even older Internet users including the 30 to 49 s (67%, up from 57% in 2008), 50 to 64 s (41%, up from 34% in 2008) and 65 + (27%, up from 19% in 2008) exhibited year-on-year increases in ever engaging in such behaviour (Madden, 2009).
The research also indicated that people go online not just to watch short-form videos mostly produced by amateur film-makers, but also increasingly use the Internet as a platform for watching regular television programmes or movies originally made for the cinema. Between 2007 and 2009, the percentage of adult American Internet users saying they had either streamed or downloaded movies or television shows more than doubled from 16 per cent to 36 per cent. Perhaps an even more significant development, although restricted to a small proportion of Internet users overall (8%), was that among those who said they had viewed or downloaded movies and TV shows online, over one in five (23%) said they had connected their computer to their TV screen so they could view video material from the Internet on their television (Madden, 2009) The importance of this finding is that it indicates that some people are already beginning to take video entertainment obtained online and transfer it for viewing to their regular TV set. This brings online video entertainment into direct competition with watching broadcast TV shows on the same technology platform.
There was also a growing interest detected in mobile video viewing. Around one in seven adult American Internet users watched video on their mobile telephones (14%) in 2009 (up from 10% in 2007). Further, one in five mobile phone users (19%) had recorded video material via their cell phones (Madden, 2009).
Further research published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Horrigan, 2009) about broadband Internet adoption confirmed the popularity of online video watching. It also found increased movement from short-form to long-form video viewing. More than one in three adult American Internet users in this survey (35%) said they had watched television programmes or movies online. There was a distinctive age variance in this behaviour, with watching of full-length movies or TV shows online being most prevalent among the 18 to 29 s (61%), followed by the 30 to 49 s (32%), then the 50 to 64 s (22%) and finally the 65 + (11%). These findings indicated that this behaviour is now widely established among young adults who may then carry it through into their older years.
Horrigan, 2009 also reported that one in five American adults he surveyed (22%) said they had cut back on cable or other TV services in the previous 12 months, while far fewer (9%) said they had cut back on their Internet services. Among those who had cut back on television services, a significant minority (32%) had connected their computer to their TV set to be able to watch downloaded video material on their main television screen. The behavioural prevalence here is well beyond the ‘tipping point’ range (10–25%).
Rose and Roisin (2001) conducted research to find out about Internet users who engaged in video and audio streaming. The more frequent ‘streamies’ were most likely to report enjoying this form of entertainment. For many of these online users, however, there was far from unqualified praise for the content received. Among all those who engaged in audio streaming, one in four (26%) said they really liked it, while more than half (58%) thought it was just OK. Among those who engaged in audio streaming monthly, more than one in three (36%) really liked it and the same was true of more than four in ten (44%) of those who engaged in this activity at least once a week. For most of the respondents in this survey, audio streaming (56%) and video streaming (65%) were enjoyed because they were seen as ‘new and fresh’.
Although there was still fairly widespread support for standard channels with pre-determined programme schedules (46% of ‘streamies’) almost as many (44%) preferred even more widespread streaming among young ‘streamies’ aged 18 to 24 years (52%) and teenagers (59%). These findings indicated that the use of these dynamic online services seemed to condition a preference among media consumers for more personal control over the content received (Rose and Roisin, 2001).
Further confirmation of the growing importance to media consumers of personal choice derived from findings that some video streamers said they were sufficiently interested to be willing to pay a small subscription to watch specific types of content such as music concerts (19% willing to pay for this), major American league football games (11%), programmes too risqué for mainstream television (7%) and various other sports events (6–7%).
Rose and Roisin (2001) also reported opinions among their respondents concerning video streaming and video game playing. The more consumers used streaming media the more likely they were to be frequent video game players. Twenty-one per cent of Americans (aged 12 +) in this survey said they played video games at least once a week; 25 per cent of web users played video games weekly, with this percentage growing among those who had ever engaged in audio or video streaming (31%), and those who had audio or video streamed in the past week (38%).
A survey of more than 1,800 American respondents aged 12 + by Magid Media Futures™ in 2007 found that daily use of online video content rose by 56 per cent in one year. At the time of the survey, one in seven Internet users (14%) reported that they watched online video every day, compared with nine per cent making this claim a year earlier. Even more significant, perhaps, was the finding that a much bigger percentage of 18- to 24- year-olds (35%) made this claim which indicated that this type of online behaviour has become widely established among young adult Internet users. Online video viewers consume a variety of types of content, with news, weather, movie previews and comedy material being among the most popular (www.redorbit.com, 2007).
Research among American teenagers provided further confirmation of the growing popularity of online video-related activities (Horowitz Associates Inc, 2009). On the evidence provided here these teenagers were widely engaged in creative activities online as well as being passive recipients of video content. A clear majority of those aged 15 to 17 years (71%) listened to music online and one in two (50%) said they viewed videos created by other people on sites such as YouTube on at least a weekly basis. Over one in three (37%) teenage Internet users said they uploaded video content they had made themselves. A similar proportion (35%) said they watched movies online and over one in four (27%) reportedly watched television programmes online at least once a week.
In the context of displacement, industry research from the United States has indicated that standard television viewing and online video viewing can both be accommodated by media consumers for two main reasons. First, they have different peak viewing times during the day and therefore may not physically impede each other. Second, there is evidence that many media consumers can and do carry out both activities simultaneously.
One survey by Interpret LLC that was carried out for a consortium of major media companies obtained data from more than 2,000 broadband Internet users aged 13 to 54 years who had reportedly watched a video online in the previous 24 hours (Marketing Charts, 2009a, 2009b). Most television consumption occurred between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. The biggest spikes in online video consumption occurred between noon and 3 p.m. and between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. The lowest level of online video consumption occurred between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Although there was some overlap between peak times for television viewing and online video viewing, it was not complete. In the evening, media consumers seemed mostly to turn first to television. Online video viewing then climbed later in the evening when television viewing would normally be expected to tail off (after 11 p.m.).
Another survey sponsored by blinkx revealed some additional interesting television online video viewing habits. This online survey collected data in February 2008 from nearly 2,500 respondents aged 18 and over in the United States and found little evidence for a simple displacement effect between use of the Internet and television viewing (blinkx, 2008). Many respondents were found to use both the Internet and television and many did so at the same time. These media consumers were labelled as ‘double dippers’. The survey, representing the general American Internet-using population, reported that three in four online-active US adults (78%) reportedly went online while watching television. More than one in three online adults reportedly engaged in this simultaneous use of the Internet and television ‘often’ or ‘always’. More than six in ten (62%) ‘double dippers’ surfed the web for content not related to the programme they were watching at the same time. Others surfed for programme-related content and among these, the content searched tended to be about the actors in the programme they were watching (51%), information about products advertised in the programme, or related upcoming events (39%).
Continuous measurement of online video viewing
The media industries have for many years conducted well-resourced audience research exercises designed to provide continuous flows of data about the behaviour of their audiences. In television audience research, set-meter systems have formed the backbone of such research, coupled with viewers’ reports of their physical presence in front of a TV set. The latter are also captured electronically in modern measurement systems. Online behaviour is tracked electronically and the major search engines continuously monitor the online traffic flowing through their systems. Commercial research agencies, often engaged in audience measurement in other media sectors, have also established industry-approved measurement systems for monitoring Internet traffic. Tracking research studies have reported on the comparative sizes of audiences for television, for the Internet and for watching online video content. These studies have also measured the amounts of time devoted to these media by their users.
Research from the United States by Nielsen reported increased use of the Internet and significant audiences for online video content in 2008. At the same time, there was no indication that audiences for television or the average amount of time viewers spent with the medium were falling away (Albrecht, 2009). In the fourth quarter of 2008, more than 285 million people (aged two and over) watched any television per month. This figure compared with 281 million a year earlier. There was a significant upward shift (of 37%) in the numbers of viewers each month that watched time-shifted programming (nearly 74 million). During this period, the monthly reach of the Internet was nearly 162 million people in the US (aged two and over), and a figure of over 123 million specifically in respect of watching video on the Internet (Albrecht, 2009).
If displacement of television by the Internet is occurring, one sign of this might be that less time is being devoted to television viewing, while more time is being commanded by online activities. The same research from the US indicated that the average amount of time spent online by Internet users (aged 2 +) per month in the fourth quarter of 2008 was 27 hours and four minutes, an increase of 56 minutes on the year before. Just two hours and 53 minutes, on average, was spent watching online videos. Hence, although the reach figure for online video viewing was a significant proportion (76%) of the total reach of the Internet, the amount of time devoted to online video viewing was, in comparison, a much more modest percentage (11%) of total Internet usage time. What was also important was the finding that the average amount of time spent watching television per month (151 hours and three minutes) represented a year-on-year increase of over five hours. At seven hours and 11 minutes, time spent viewing playback programming viewers had self-recorded also represented a sizeable year-on-year increase (+ 33%). Hence, although online video viewing, on this evidence, was widespread in the US, it did not appear to be eating into time spent watching television (Albrecht, 2009).
ComScore (2009a) reported data for December 2008 which showed that American Internet users viewed 14.3 billion online videos during that month. This represented a 13 per cent increase on the previous month. This viewing was carried out by 149.5 million unique users. Hence, virtually half the US population had engaged in video viewing that month and watched an average of 96 videos each. This amounted to average viewing of 309 minutes (more than five hours) per online video viewer. In all 98.9 million viewers watched 5.9 billion videos on YouTube (59.2 videos per viewer) and 48.7 million viewers watch 367 million videos on MySpace (7.6 videos per viewer). The duration of the average online video was 3.2 minutes. Hulu.com provided the longest videos that averaged 10.1 minutes each and 24.6 million unique users visited Hulu’s site and watched an average of 9.8 videos each (c99 minutes of viewing in one month).
Later, ComScore reported that the total number of online videos viewed in the US for September 2009 was nearly 26 billion (Marketingprofs.com, 2009). Of these, 10.4 billion were made to Google sites, which mostly meant YouTube; there were 166.2 million unique users of online videos, with each viewer watching an average of 154.4 videos; there were 124.2 million unique users of Google sites, watching an average of 82.7 videos during the month; and Hulu attracted 38.7 million users that month who watched an average of 15.1 videos (one hour and 15 minutes of video per viewer). On average each online video viewer watched 9.8 hours of video per month.
One problem with continuous audience research for online video viewing is that different measurement systems produce dramatically different audience estimates. One online commentator observed, for instance, that Nielsen reported 8.9 million visitors to Hulu in March 2009, while ComScore reported 42 million (Stelter, 2009 Nielsen also reported marked increases in video streams via Hulu across February, March and April 2009, while unique visitors counts dropped over the same period.
NielsenWire (2009) reported data from Nielsen’s Three Screen Report that showed that the average American (aged 2 +) watched just over 153 hours of live broadcast television every month at home during the first quarter of 2009, an increase of 1.9 per cent on the same period for the year before. The big growth areas here were time-shift viewing and online video viewing. Between the first quarter 2008 and first quarter 2009, there was a 40 + per cent increase in time-shift television viewing (from 5 hours 52 minutes to 8 hours 13 minutes per month). Meanwhile, time spent with the Internet increased by nearly five per cent year on year (to 29 hours 15 minutes per month), and yet time spent by Internet users watching online video jumped dramatically by over 53 per cent, though still at a low base level of three hours per month. Another notable finding was that more time was spent watching video content on a mobile phone than on the Internet by the first quarter 2009 (3 hours 37 minutes per month). Growth data for time spent on this activity were not presented, but usage number data were available and indicated a year-on-year growth in the mobile video user base from 8.8 million per month for the first quarter of 2008 to 13.4 million by the first quarter of 2009.
The average television and Internet usage data reported by NielsenWire (2009) hid a number of significant age differences in consumption of these media. Use of television is linked to age and life stage. Hence, the heaviest use of television was registered among people aged over 65 (210 hours, 52 minutes per month) and then secondly among those aged 45–54 years (175 hours, 42 minutes per month). The latter age group comprises many family households where domestic commitments and financial constraints restrict leisure activities to the home, with television watching being prominent among them. Despite evidence that new media adoption tends to be more widespread among young people (see Gunter, Rowlands and Nicholas, 2009, Nielsen data reported the heaviest Internet use occurred among people aged 35 to 44 (42 hours, 35 minutes per month). In comparison, teenagers aged 12 to 17 (11 hours, 32 minutes per month) and young adults aged 18 to 24 (14 hours, 19 minutes per month) were relatively light users. Young adults aged 18–24 (5 hours, 7 minutes per month) and aged 25 to 34 (4 hours, 32 minutes per month), however, were the heaviest users of online video content. Teens aged 12 to 17 took the lead in respect of watching videos on mobile phones (6 hours, 30 minutes per month).
Further data reported from Nielsen, for October 2009, showed that online video usage in the United States reached 138.6 million unique users who watched 11.2 billion video streams, or an average of 81 per viewer. The average online viewing time achieved was 212.5 minutes per viewer during October 2009, a 23.8 per cent increase on the same period one year earlier. The time spent viewing online video on Facebook jumped by over 1800 per cent year-on-year from 34.9 million minutes in October 2008 to 677 million minutes in October 2009. On average in September 2009, online video viewers spent 195.2 minutes watching video (NielsenWire (2009)).
Crum (2009) reported data for the UK from Comscore Video Metrix showing that between January 2008 and January 2009, the number of unique online video viewers aged 15 + increased from 26.8 million to 29.6 million within one month. This was a jump of 10 per cent. Viewers of YouTube in January 2009 numbered 29.5 million, up 17 per cent from 20 million in January 2008. Audiences for online videos that were shown on BBC websites increased by 18 per cent from 5.7 million to 6.8 million unique viewers. In all, 80.1 per cent of all UK Internet users viewed online video.
In the United Kingdom, a total of 29.6 million online video viewers were logged during one month in January 2009. This represented a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in audience reach (ComScore, 2009b). This viewing figure represented 80 per cent of the total UK Internet audience and, on average, British online video viewers spent 9.5 hours each watching this material. The most widely used sites were those operated by Google (23.7 million users), but virtually all (99%) of this consumption occurred on Google-owned YouTube (25.5 million users). Following some distance behind were sites operated by the BBC (6.8 million users). The biggest year-on-year increase occurred for videos watched on Facebook (+ 140%).
This dramatic growth in online video watching has been observed elsewhere. Internet audience research in Germany showed an audience reach figure of 28.5 million online video viewers during December 2008, representing a 10 per cent year-on-year increase. German Internet users watched 3.4 billion videos online during this one month, an average of 119 videos per viewer or four videos per day. Given that the average duration of an online video was just over four minutes, however, this did not amount to a significant amount of time per day (Robertson, 2009). Nevertheless, the data indicated a widespread phenomenon. At present it is based largely on viewing of short-form videos. If online viewing behaviour changes, with increased supply of relevant content, to more long-form video watching, then the time occupied by online video could mean that it will become a much bigger competitor to ordinary television viewing.
Online video viewing versus television
There is mounting evidence from a number of different parts of the world that online video viewing has been a key driver of Internet use in the second generation (i.e. Web 2.0) Internet era. As we will see below, much of the evidence derives from commercial research, although some relevant studies have also been published by academic writers. The key question is not just how much do Internet users watch online videos, but whether it displaces their watching of television. Much of the industry-sector research has relied upon self-report evidence of self-attributed changes in viewing habits as a function of using online video.
American research agency Magid Associates published research showing that many consumers reported spending less time with television as they preferred to devote more of their time to web-based activities including social networking and using online video. An overwhelming majority of Internet users (92%) claimed to use their personal computers for entertainment purposes on a weekly basis. Over one in three (35%) said they were watching less television because of this. Among online video viewers, more especially, one in four (25%) said they watched less television since they started using online television replay and repository services such as Hulu. Internet users aged between 12 and 64 years endorsed the Internet (21%) marginally more than television (18%) as their preferred source of entertainment (Emigh, 2008).
Further evidence from the United States indicated that not only is the use of online video widespread among Internet users, it has begun to rival the use of television as a source of entertainment in terms of how much time consumers spend with each medium (The Bridge 2008). Data reported from ComScore Video Metrix indicated that 77 per cent of American Internet users watched over 10 billion videos online during December 2007. The most widely visited online supplier of video content was Google, whose sites, including YouTube, were used during this one month by 43 per cent of US Internet users.
In the context of how the Internet might compete with television as a source of entertainment were further data reported by The Bridge (2008) from an IBM survey of US consumer digital media and entertainment habits, again from 2007. This survey asked respondents about the amount of time spent each day with the Internet and watching television. Fewer respondents reported less than two hours per day of Internet use (25%) than reported the same amount of television viewing (37%). The percentage of respondents that claimed to use the Internet for between two and six hours a day (59%) outnumbered by a small margin the proportion claiming to watch television (57%) for that amount of time. The most substantial margin of difference, however, occurred at over six hours a day of usage, which was more prevalent in the case of Internet use (26%) than for television viewing (16%). These data do not demonstrate evidence of Internet displacement of television viewing, but they reinforce the idea that the Internet is growing in popularity and in the extent to which it occupies significant portions of people’s time each day.
A further finding from the IBM survey that also has important implications for the potential impact of Internet use on television viewing concerned the types of online sources of video content that were used most often. A number of online video sources were mentioned in this context but the ones most widely identified were sites providing usergenerated content (39% of online video users) followed by sites operated by television networks (33%), search engines (32%), and social networks (28%). Pay-TV operators were mentioned by a much smaller proportion of online video users (8%). Thus, television companies had some presence in this market as preferred sources, but they were certainly not dominant (The Bridge 2008).
One year later, IBM conducted another Digital Consumer Survey. This was conducted online in the third quarter of 2008 and covered six countries: Australia, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, and the USA. It achieved 2,800 responses. Three out of four respondents (76%) said they had watched an online video on their personal computer and one in three (32%) said they had done so over a mobile device. A large minority (45%) claimed to watch online videos on a regular basis. Over half the online video viewers said that they watched less television as a result, with some (15%) saying they watched ‘slightly less’ and many more (36%) saying they watched ‘significantly less’ (Around the Net in Online Media, 2008).
Self-reported reductions in television viewing attributed by respondents to their use of online videos were found in research conducted in the UK by the BBC. Online video watching was a minority activity at the time of this survey in 2006, with just over one in five (22%) of the population claiming to do it either regularly or occasionally. Online video viewing was more prevalent among young people aged 16 to 24 years and over one in four (28%) claimed to watch videos online at least once a week. Among this age group, more than four in ten (43%) claimed to watch less television because of their online video viewing (BizAsia, 2006; Slocombe, 2006).
The research commissioned by the BBC also explored what media consumers in the UK thought about how online video viewing might affect their usual television viewing (Nesbitt, 2006). The data here were self-reports of own behaviour or probable future behaviour. One in five respondents (20%) claimed that they watched a lot less normal television as a result of watching video online or via a mobile phone. Twenty-three per cent said they watched a bit less normal TV for this reason. For more than one in two (54%) online video viewing seemed to make no difference to their normal television viewing. A few respondents (3%) claimed that they watched more television because of their online video viewing.
In Hong Kong, Lee and Leung (2006) surveyed Internet users and found that a self-reported proportion of daily media time devoted to using the Internet for entertainment purposes (i.e., web surfing, playing games) was negatively related to the reported proportion of media time each day spent on using television for the same reason. Using the Internet for entertainment was also significantly associated with smaller proportions of media consumption time each day devoted to reading of newspapers and listening to radio.
Not all self-report survey studies have produced evidence of displacement of television viewing by online video viewing. A survey of American Internet users by LRG in 2008 found that reported use of online videos was increasing, but this did not mean for most online video viewers that they also reduced their television viewing (see Albrecht, 2009). One in three respondents to this survey (34%) said they watched online videos on at least a weekly basis. This represented an increase on one year earlier (31%). Only eight per cent of those surveyed who watched online videos strongly agreed that they watched less television; many more (75%) strongly disagreed with this perception. Even among teenagers who were surveyed, far fewer reported strong agreement with a statement that they had reduced their use of television than expressed strong disagreement with this statement (18% versus 61%).
In the UK again, a survey conducted by Deloitte with YouGov questioned more than 2,100 television viewers, who were also Internet users, about video on demand. In the reporting of this research, the findings that were headlined focused on the apparently limited appeal of video on demand (Laughlin, 2009). Although most respondents (83%) were aware of on-demand programme reply sites supplied by the major public service broadcasters (more than were aware of YouTube – 76%), most viewers (69%) claimed to watch television online for less than one hour a day. Nearly three in ten (29%) reportedly also felt there was little importance in having the option to watch television online. Further, over half the respondents (53%) could not apparently be persuaded to watch more television online even with faster broadband speeds. There were other findings, however, that did signal that online video material could represent a significant alternative to ordinary television watching. Among those who did access television over the Internet, a clear majority (71%) did so to watch catch-up programmes they missed on main television. Thus, although online television is a supplement to conventional television viewing, it does represent a type of long-form online video viewing and a type of television viewing that takes place in ‘on-demand’ mode. As such it can be seen as representing an activity that could condition an alternative orientation towards television viewing and a movement from short-form to long-form video consumption online.
Research evidence has emerged elsewhere to indicate that although media consumers are turning increasingly to the Internet and report that going online occupies as much of their time as watching television, the Internet is used by many as an alternative television viewing platform. Marketing Charts (2007) reported on an IBM Institute for Business Value survey of 2,400 + households in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Australia. One in five respondents (20%) reported spending 6 + hours a day on personal Internet usage versus just under one in ten (9%) saying they spent this much time watching television. In all, two-thirds (66%) reported viewing 1–4 hours of television per day with six in ten (60%) reporting the same levels of personal Internet usage.
In the USA, a far larger percentage of respondents to this survey said they devoted six or more hours per day to the Internet (26%) than said the same of television (16%). Most respondents said they spent between one and four hours a day with each medium (54% for the Internet and 58% for television). The most popular websites visited by those who went online tended to have video content. Most frequently mentioned of all were YouTube (39%) and sites operated by the major television networks (33%).
Video game playing
We have already seen that video game playing is a widely popular activity and represents a form of video-based entertainment. Research conducted in the United States by the Pew Institute has found that over one in two Americans aged 18 years and over (53%) reportedly played video games, and one in five (21%) reportedly played these games every day or almost every day (Lenhart, Jones, and Macgill, 2008b). We saw earlier that virtually all American teenagers were found to play these games (Lenhart et al., 2008a). Video game playing was found to be far more prevalent among the 18 to 29 s (81%) and 30 to 49 s (60%) than among the 50 to 64 s (40%) and 65 + (23%).
Video game playing also occupies time, though the Pew research did not report on how much time average adult players devote to this pastime. However, nearly one in two gamers (49%) reported playing games at least a few times a week (Lenhart et al., 2008b). This distribution held for nearly all age groups. The surprising finding was that it was the oldest game players (aged 65 +) who were proportionately the most likely to play at least a few times a week (64%).
Pew researchers have also reported that for American teenagers online game playing is a major attraction (Jones and Fox, 2009). For teenage Internet users game playing is their favourite online activity with wider reported use (78%) than e-mail (71%).
Noting the prevalence of computer or video game playing alone does not provide direct evidence that television viewing is being displaced by it, whether it takes place online or offline. One study that did examine inter-relationships between the use of these media and time devoted to a range of other physical and activities among Canadian teenagers found that use of computer/video games was negatively related to watching television (Mannell, Zuzanek and Aronson, 2005). This study used an experience sampling method in which teenage respondents kept a time-use diary which they completed each time they were beeped via a radio pager that they carried around with them all the time. Overall, across the sample of more than 2,100 12 to 19 year-olds, more time was spent watching television or videos (29% of time accounted for) than with computer or video gaming (6% of time) or surfing the Internet (5% of time). However, the greater the amount of time that was devoted to computer/video gaming, the less time was spent watching television or videos.
Concluding remarks
Television remains an important source of entertainment for its users and they regard entertainment programmes as a cornerstone of the medium’s content provision. Entertainment in this context covers a number of programme genres ranging from various forms of drama made for television, televised movies, comedy, game and quiz shows, music, talent contests, talk and variety. In addition, the popularity of the Internet has also been driven by the entertainment-related gratifications its users derive from its content and online services.
In direct comparisons, television continues to be rated ahead of the Internet as an entertainment source among samples drawn from general national populations, but opinions on this point can vary between different sub-groups in societies where the Internet is now widely established.
One key factor that has opened up the media entertainment market is that the overall amount of entertainment content has grown significantly over time during the Internet era. This growth has occurred on television as well as online. The portfolio of entertainment programming transmitted via television has expanded both with the growth in numbers of television channels and with bigger provision via older-established channels (Ofcom, 2009a). The amount and consumption of video entertainment available via the Internet has also grown exponentially in the twenty-first century (Changing Media, 2007; Horrigan, 2009; Madden, 2007). Online entertainment content is especially popular among teenagers and young adults (Horowitz Associates Inc., 2009; Rose and Roisin, 2001).
The diversity of entertainment forms has also expanded during this period as there have been substantial increases in the total amount of interactive forms of entertainment available to media consumers both online and offline. The latter include more entertainment programmes on television with which viewers can get involved and take part at home via telephone and Internet links and a wide variety of video games played live online or offline via stand-alone consoles or television sets.
Online tracking research has indicated that more people are spending more time consuming more video content via the Internet (ComScore, 2009a, 2009b; NielsenWire (2009). In general, however, there are no signs that the dramatic acceleration of online entertainment consumption has resulted in any decline in time devoted to conventional television viewing (Albrecht, 2009; Armstrong, 2008). One reason for this, however, could be that most online video watching has involved short-form video content with the average video duration lasting no more than a few minutes (ComScore, 2009a, 2009b). Thus, in spite of the impressive numbers of downloads (Crum, 2009), on aggregate they occupy fairly limited amounts of time out of media consumers’ monthly media-related time budgets (Marketingprofs.com, 2009). As media consumers move towards watching long-form video content online, this position could change dramatically.
It is important, therefore, to continue to monitor online and offline media developments. The fact that Internet use has followed an upward track while television viewing has remained largely unchanged at the macro levels measured by industry audience trackers is not in itself evidence on non-displacement of television by the Internet. The reason for this conclusion is that such macro-level data do not differentiate between heavy and light users of the Internet to determine whether the former exhibit greater reductions in their television viewing that can be directly attributed to their time spent online. To know this, measurement of media habits at the level of the individual is necessary.
At the same time, it is also advisable to treat with caution self-report data from surveys in which their respondents have been invited to provide personal impressions about the influence of their use of the Internet on their television viewing. Such evidence of television’s displacement by the Internet could be based on problematic estimates. Although these surveys satisfy the condition of providing individual media consumer level accounts of media habits, they tend to obtain simplistic data from respondents about their allocation of time to different media that may not represent accurate indicators of that behaviour. Research that has compared self-report television viewing frequency data with direct observations of viewing behaviour over the specified time periods has confirmed that self-reports of television-related behaviour are often wrong (Allen, 1965; Anderson et al., 1985; Bechtel, Achelpohl and Akers, 1972).
Despite these caveats evidence has started to emerge that when continuous and direct measures of media behaviour are applied at the level of individuals, those who report more time spent with video games also reveal less time spent with television (Mannell et al., 2005). Whether this finding signals a warning to conventional television broadcasters, however, depends upon how they respond to change. More video content is appearing on the Internet, but as we will see in the next chapter, mainstream broadcasters are among the perpetrators rather than simply being victims of this development. Moreover, broadcasters in the offline world are contributing long-form video content that occupies more of a media consumer’s time. Further, well-known broadcasters have the advantage of brand strength that could help them to stand out in a crowded online media marketplace.
It is possible, however, that the widespread adoption of online video entertainment formats will bring about changes that signal the demise of conventional styles of television viewing. The key changes we might envisage here include the preference for on-demand services for standard viewing and for greater levels of direct involvement with content on screen. The final chapter explores these issues by presenting an overview of the key technological changes to television and the Internet and the functional and behavioural implications they have for television in the future.