On The Up

Some new statistics on the adoption of internet TV in the US from the Solutions Research Group:

Apparently almost 80 million Americans (43% of the online population) have watched one of their favorite TV shows on the Internet, up significantly from 12 months ago when that figure was just 25%.

A full 20% of the American online population said they watch TV on the web on a weekly basis, and that’s ahead of the 14% who say they take advantage of cable’s video-on-demand offerings.
These findings come from Digital Life America tracking study conducted quarterly by Solutions Research Group. The company interviewed 1,150 Americans aged 12 and older in November 2007, to take advantage of the fall sweeps with its strong first-run prime time content, and capture a realistic picture of multi-platform TV viewing.

Other findings in the report include:

"To watch a specific show" was the main reason cited for 21% of all visits to major network websites in November 2007. Of the major network sites, abc.com received the highest user experience score among those who streamed a TV show, with 52% rating their overall experience as ‘excellent," followed by fox.com (44% "excellent").

Top major network TV shows viewed on the Internet included Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, Ugly Betty, Chuck, CSI and House, Kitchen Nightmares, Smallville and Gossip Girl.

Those who viewed one of the leading 20 prime time shows in the past 24 hours (titles such as Grey’s Anatomy, House, Survivor-China and 17 others) were asked to identify the source of viewing. Overall, 25% of prime time viewing was time shifted using a DVR, broadband, mobile or similar. Among viewers 18-34, one-third (34%) of viewing was time-shifted. And among 18-49 households with a DVR, a remarkable 55% of the leading 20 shows were time-shifted.

If a household has a DVR and broadband, DVR is the preferred means of time-shifting. DVR users are becoming more aggressive in skipping commercials—65% say they "always" skip commercials compared to 52% a year ago.

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