Comments on: Americans love their TVs, but flirt with streaming

By: Chris Painter

Chris Painter — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:31:03 +0000

The problem with averaging the data out to 27 minutes per day for the 18-34 demographic and then claiming they are replacing their regular TV show viewing with this, is that it doesn’t clearly call out what percentage are watching full length TV shows. Most dramas, and other popular shows like Glee are closer to 1 hr long (44 minutes with fewer or no commercials). As modelmotion pointed out, wouldn’t it be more likely that this 27 minutes is just YouTube and other short videos watched on their PC?

Throughout the day, I can easily rack up close to that much time myself at work just checking a few videos.

As with any of this data, it’s never quite enough information to clearly call out what exactly is happening. There is no doubt some traditional TV viewing via a MSO being replaced by some online viewing via Netflix or Hulu. But I want to see more clear data before making bigger claims.

By: modelmotion

modelmotion — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:02:34 +0000

“This trend is especially pronounced in the demographic of 18- to 34-year-old viewers. Twenty percent of that demographic watch about 27 minutes of online video on their computer on average every day….”

27 minutes of online video is a remarkably low number for this “prime demographic”. This comes at a time when the people over at Tubefilter claim the world is ready for 30 minute web series.

It would be interesting to take a much closer look within this demographic to see what the actual distribution looks like. Is the data simply skewed to the low side by an average that include a majority that watches virtually no online video, or what?

You would not have to watch a lot of Youtubers to clock up 27 min. There is a ton of TV shows now online that have become quite popular with this demographic. So, I am not questioning the 27min but saying we need to understand it much better. Might make for an interesting follow up story.