Back in the day. About 2000 to be somewhat precise, the biggest day part for listening to audio or watching video online was from 11am to 4pm for each time zone. In otherwords, more people went to broadcast.com for audio and video during work hours than any other part of the day.
I was curious if this had changed at all.
My guess was that it had changed some. That the biggest change in habit was people getting online after dinner in order to check their email and while they were there, hunt down links that people had sent them, read blogs, search for stuff, watch video. Basically random stuff that killed time.
I was also curious to see if online video had yet become "TV". Were people using it as a primary entertainment source ? As an alternative to TV ?. Given that time spent watching TV per household was up in 2006 over 2005, I didnt expect that they were, but I wanted to find out.
So i turned to the very fine folks over at Comscore.com. Andrew Lipsman and Jonathan Freedman are the experts in researching these types of online issues and they came through with flying colors. Less than 48 hour turnaround for a breakdown for home and office viewing by daypart.
As it turns out, based on data for January of 2007, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
When do more people watch online video than any other time ? From 10am to 5pm, mon to fri. Thats when 30pct of all online video viewing takes place. If you want to go a little earlier, for those that get to work early, add another 7pct. So that 37pct of all online viewing activity takes place from 7am to 5pm. Or put another way, about 50pct of all video viewing during WEEKDAYS (as opposed to 37pct for the entire week) happens from 7am to 5pm. Thats a big number.
The next biggest viewing activity came just as I expected, after work hours. From 5pm to 8pm is when 14pct of all online viewing activity takes place.
What percentage of people watch video on the internet during some part of the prime time TV hours during the week ?
12pct. On the weekends, that falls to 6pct.
At this point some might expect the argument about the impact, lack there of, or growing adoption trends, or whatever else could be extrapolated from this. Not me.
Content owners , particularly those serving content from their own websites, or getting reports from vendors serving video for them already are seeing these trends. They know when their content is most watched.
Which is exactly why the big networks are streaming full TV shows. They know that most people watch them at work or at home during the weekday. When it has minimal impact on their viewership and ad sales. If they were really smart, they would turn off the streams in the evenings.
I think some smart videohosting company is going to create a licensing agreement that allows the content owner not only to share revenues, but to determine what time videos can or can not be watched. Some smart advertising sales force is going to price their advertising around video based on the day part as well.
All the stuff we were doing at broadcast.com in 2000. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
When do people watch Online Video ?
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(Page 1)2. Thats interesting to see.
So most are viewing from work. With the further popularization of services and tools like "websense" i wonder how long those trends will stay that way.
Posted at 9:05PM on Mar 16th 2007 by Mike Verinder
3. That would just be annoying. If they were to control the times you could watch, it would affect people who don't get that channel anyway. If you block out episodes of House while the newest episode of House is on, what's gained? Even the people who have the choice between tv and free streaming would still go to the tv, because the newest episode wouldn't be online. Not being able to watch FOX on the internet at a given time is not likely to make me go over to the tv and watch NBC at that moment. FOX is better off keeping me at their website than sitting in limbo. I don't think controlling time would be as helpful to them as you think.
5. I'd like to see what types of videos are watched. I know they are mostly copyright violation material, but I'd like to see how long the clips are. Watching long videos in a tiny box in your browser doesn't seem like something I'd want to ever do. The only online videos I watch are The 9 (part of yahoo) and a couple of user generated shows on Youtube. Nothing more than 5 minutes in length. And yes, it is usually during work (but don't tell my boss that!).
Posted at 9:59PM on Mar 16th 2007 by Matthew
6. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm confused. You say that 37% of online viewing activity takes place from 7AM-5PM. Then you say that that is a big number. Is it really?
That number seems smaller than I would expect. Let's assume the average person is awake for 18 hours a day. That means you have 37% of online viewing during the 10 hours from 7AM-5PM. That leaves 63% of viewing in the other 8 hours. So unless I'm missing something here, that means people are viewing almost 2/3 of their videos from the time they get off work until they go to sleep. What gives?
Posted at 11:53PM on Mar 16th 2007 by Matt
7. I'm with Matt here. 37% of viewing takes place in 41% of the day (7-5 is 41%). So 63% of video viewing takes place in the other 59% of the day.
What this tells me is that video viewing happens all day, probably all over the world too.
These numbers just aren't significant enough to say anything other than: some people watch videos.
8. I think the main reason for this trend is the online content is not scheduled or scripted. The majority of people watch television in order to somewhat veg out, they want scheduled programming that requires very little searching or skipping around from clip to clip. Until the online video community incorporates some of these aspects in their long term plan, I doubt we will see that much of a change.
Posted at 12:48AM on Mar 17th 2007 by Will Broyles
9. I was a little surprised by your numbers, Mark, but then that's because ever since I began working in Internet Marketing and SEO, my time spent online increased drastically and I now look for the latest and the greatest websites, blogs, videos, and applications from 8am to 10pm (with breaks, of course).
I love that at least some networks have made their prime time shows accessible to the public. I don't have TiVo, so it's great to be able to have a life and then come back and catch up on my shows when I want.
It is highly unlikely that networks will ever restrict online show viewing during prime time hours. It's a usability nightmare, first of all. Second, chances are they won't lose television viewers to online except in the rare instance where someone wants to catch up on the show before watching the latest episode. In all conceivable instances, making the shows available 24/7 is good business. It encourages all to come and see what's great about a networks programming. It only builds momentum.
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Posted at 10:59AM on Mar 17th 2007 by Matthew Collier
11. Hey Mark, Its back to the snack vs. the meal thing. Watching something on your PC isnt the same as kicking back on the sofa with someone and having your feet up watching the big screen. If there is something cool on TV you can always go back to the PC. And if you are going to watch a game somewhere its a no brainer on which one to view it on. UM Lets see, should I watch YouTube or kick back on the sofa and watch the big screen? One of the biggest annoyances while necessary is the advertising,either on TV or those popups on the PC.Not to sound too lazy but there is a little more effort to having to go on a PC and type things and go through web pages then it is to just click that magic remote.Until you can get all your info from online to your 48 inch in your living room and its as convenient to change the viewing until virtual Orville Redenbocker gets done with his pitch,its got a long way to go. I guess you can drag the sofa into the office though but that gets a little taxing. lol. I would suspect that veiwing goes down on both media sources when the weather gets nicer too.TV still holds all the aces when it comes to comfort and ease.Thanks for the thoughts
Posted at 1:32PM on Mar 17th 2007 by Frankie from Lawnside
12. I was pleasantly surprised to see major networks take advantage of the growth in broadband access by streaming the current episodes. The extra touches they get cost very little and will go a far way in solidifying their viewer base. My question to them, 'what took you so long?!' Sure you can Tivo it, but as the numbers support, people are catching up on videos during working hours (I bet corp. america loves that!)
13. The day part billing just won't work. Why make ad buying and monitoring more complicated? People will just find their way around it. Plus, how time critical are the downloads?
Billing by audience type, getting closer to personalization, will eventually win out and in the meantime you will see more creative uses of product placement and ad banners running along edges of frames.
The two items I think are worth noting is that women make up 90% of daytime viewing of broadcast/cable and kids are downloading what they want to watch when they want - until to you break down your viewership by genre - ad buying and sponsorship will continue to be managed loosely and not taken too seriously.
Drop in some sidebar chat to run along the video and change the experience - mash it up a bit
Posted at 4:56PM on Mar 17th 2007 by MRHoffman
14. I think that networks will never take advantage of the internet until they stop seeing it as a threat and start seeing it as an opportunity.
I like some of the things NBC is doing with "Heroes", with the ability to download episodes after they show on T.V., blogs from the actors, comic books to go along with show...Nice stuff.
15. The numbers don't surprise me, [on When do people watch Online Video] I guess it might be interesting to know the trend and how it will change over time.
The comments already posted do bring up some interesting issues. I disagree with superdave—many homes with a working computer that is “Tivo Like” trumps just a regular TV or even an Hdtv unit. The trick is getting two or three TV tuner cards in the box working and using the software to in effect have a “Super-Tivo”. Now you are talking! The average consumer will flock to this solution—particularly when they can drop those high Tvio monthly fees.
Mathew talks about watching long videos on a small box or in a browser … well I’ve got news for you, you don’t have to. About 3 or 4 weeks ago I was desperate. 24 was a two-hour episode and it was Monday and the next episode was coming up in about 52 minutes. Our two-hour episode from the week earlier had been captured on my VCR but only the first hour not the second. On the long shot that the Internet would come to the rescue I surfed the web and found the episode for $1.99. A Buck + .99¢ I can do that. I downloaded the episode in one large file and it was ready for viewing by the first commercial break in Hero’s.
In my wildest dreams I would not have expected the source and would not, even now give them a blanket recommendation. It was AOL! It gets even better. It was in HD. Or at least what was close enough for me. And it played great, full screen on the download computer, and a burned copy worked on another computer—Great sound, Great picture, HD and…. No commercials!
Mark is a great guy, I just hope that AOL doesn’t read his blog and muck up a good thing.
Posted at 9:41PM on Mar 17th 2007 by Nick Jones
16. mark - your audio/video viewing observations from 2000ish are basically the same as they are now -- viewing patterns for the most part have not changed. we hosted at least a few servers for broadcast.com (mostly radio stations) and the stats we saw back then are still what we see today, although the content is slightly different.
Posted at 10:10PM on Mar 17th 2007 by Jordan Blum
17. I think most people are just starting to watch a lot of video online, with TV shows available now and that sort of thing. A lot of what was available before was just Youtube blooper type stuff. But as sports hilights and that type of thing becomes more prevalent, it will take an even stronger foothold.
18. Did you actually pay money for this information? If only 30% of the viewing is happening from 10am-5pm (which is 29.2% of the hours of the day) then that must not be the most popular segment of the day. How did you read it any differently? You second set of data disproves your point even more by saying that 37% of the viewing happens in 41.7% of the day. You have clearly shown that most viewing (but not by much) is actually done outside of the typical work hours.
Posted at 7:57AM on Mar 18th 2007 by Brad
19. I think the numbers are possibly being misinterpreted.
if i read correctly, what is being said is that 50% of online viewing is happening during weekday work hours.
these numbers are being looked at through the lense of television, i.e. where the SIZE of the viewing audience is important.
to give an example - in television - getting 30 million of a potential audience of about 225 million is important if that is the biggest audience watching one thing at a time.
It's like a curve in school. The highest grade sometimes determines everything else, even if it deviates far from the actual 100%.
So in this sense, the nubmer 50% of views happening during work hours during the work week because it means that the remaining 50% is spread out over the rest of hte day, which means that that big number indicates what is currently the norm for online viewing as relates to advertising dollars and/or assessing trends.
To put it another way, if one considers a film blockbuster a 100 million dollar grossing movie, andthe average movie ticket retails for about 7 dollars and change in the US, then you're getting about 14 million tickets sold. that doesn't seem like a large number when the population is 300 million, and the moviegoing population is probably about 235-250 million. But it is a large number when considering how infrequenlt that threshold is broken relative to the number of films released wide in the US.
In short, all things are relative and dependent on the lense through which you view them.
Then again, I might be a million times wrong and I'm not interested in any flaming war, so let's not start. Just interested in adding to the discussion.
Posted at 4:34PM on Mar 18th 2007 by blyx
Next 20 Comments
1. This is an issue you hinted at in previous posts but you had not addressed directly. I have to say i'm a little surprised by the numbers you quoted. It's humbling to me because I certainly fall outside that 50% but the first rule of statistics is that one person does not make a trend. I don't think the computer will ever be the main entertainment center but I do think that video on demand is going to eventually eclipse the current TV paradigm.
My generation has grown up making our own radio stations with Ipods and and creating our own TV stations with TIVOs. We want content on our own terms.
Posted at 9:01PM on Mar 16th 2007 by superdave