Web vs Boob Tube

Boob Tube is what my Dad called the television...
Online Video As Big As Network TV According to "The Global Web Index," from Trendstream, with research conducted by Lightspeed Research, early this year 72 percent of US Internet users watched video clips monthly -- making video bigger than blogging or social networking.

According to the survey, 62 percent of US Internet users watched at least one clip a week, a figure that Lightspeed analysts translated into 97 million weekly viewers.

By contrast, Nielsen Online pegged the number of US online video viewers in April at nearly 117 million.

That scale of usage would mean online video in the US is now as big as network TV.

"This research shows that in just three years we've reached a watershed in the way that consumers expect to watch, contribute and share video content," said Tom Smith of Trendstream. "Web users want to participate at every stage, including the creation and sharing of material."

The age of online video viewers trends younger: 82 percent of teens (16-to-17-year-olds) and young adults (18 to 24) streamed video, compared with 73 percent of Generation X (25 to 34) and 65 percent of older boomers (55 to 64) who said they watched.

Online video-sharing was less common, with only 46 percent of users participating. While teen, young adult and Gen X sharing percentages hovered around 50 percent, the older the Internet users, the less likely they were to send videos.

One-half of all respondents shared videos via e-mail to friends and family. Twenty-three percent sent video out to friends on social networks, 21 percent by instant messenger and 14 percent to their friends on video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Hulu.

The most widely used platform for discovering and viewing video online was YouTube, followed by e-mail, music sites, Yahoo! and news sites.

Sharing appears to happen mainly among close friends, as 72 percent of video-sharers sent to just one, two or three people.

"Those who access video are completely engaged in the content that they choose to watch," concluded Mr. Smith. "It's an impactful universe."

(Source: eMarketer, 05/28/09)

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