TV, video & movie content consumption online almost doubles in the UK
Posted on 06. Nov, 2007 by Chi-chi Ekweozor in Audience Analytics, Multi-Platform Content
Neilsen Online, the new name for services previously marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands) has just published a report on online video consumption in the UK.
Here are the significant points (excerpted from the report which you can download here).
My comments in italics.
Almost 21 million Britons visited a TV, video or movie-related website in Sept 07 – a 28% increase in visitors since Sept 06.
The TV/Video/Movie sector online is now visited by 63% of Britons online; up from 55% in Sept 06 – a growth rate of 15%.
Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online, comments “Britons are displaying an increasingly significant appetite for supplementing their viewing habits online. Whether it’s additional content relating to a particular TV programme or actually watching episodes or videos through their computer, we are starting to see a significant spread of entertainment consumption from the so-called ‘lean-back’ method of TV to the ‘lean-forward’ method of the PC.”
Our free iPhone competition designed to find out which TVs shows consumers in the UK are interested in watching on YouTube, Bebo and on the iPhone in the UK is perfectly timed then!
YouTube is the most popular and most engaging TV, video or movie site being visited by 9.4 million Britons who spend a combined total of almost half a billion minutes on the site
This is probably obvious to anyone who works in an open plan office in the
The top ten contain four major broadcasters, two social media video sites, two movie information sites and two sites for general TV content.
It’s worth downloading the 3 page report to read the analysis of the Top 10 UK Video sites in terms of Unique UK Audience, Active UK Reach and Total UK Minutes.
I’ve reproduced the column showing the sites in terms of Total UK Minutes below.
10 most popular TV, Video & Movie Sites* by UK audience – September 2007
It’s fascinating to note that the combined time spent online on both ITV and Channel 4′s websites, the two largest commercial TV broadcasters in the UK, is exactly the same as the time spent on Sky, the satellite broadcaster (41 million minutes).
However, in terms of audience engagement, all three are dwarfed by YouTube: 499 million UK minutes were spent on YouTube between September 2006 and September 2007.
US chat show queen, Oprah recognises the power of YouTube and launched her own channel last week.
In her video message to YouTube users, she professes respect for the persistence of Russell, the skateboarding dog and other stars of YouTube, including Jud Laipply of of the Evolution of Dance video.
Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, founders of YouTube and hip hop mogul P. Diddy, who recently ran a contest to find an assistant on YouTube will all be guests on this week’s episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show during which the formal announcement of the partnership with YouTube will be made.
To conclude, Alex Burmaster of Nielsen Online says:
“The fact that YouTube is the most popular site in this sector shows the power of social media as an entertainment form – and the threat or opportunity it poses for traditional media players, depending on your point view.
It’s also interesting to note that TV-links.co.uk – the ninth most popular site and, amongst the top ten, second only to YouTube in terms of total audience time – has now been closed after claims it was illegally providing links to download film content and TV shows.
Whilst the legality of the site is in question, the appetite that people have for watching this type of content online isn’t. It is an example of the potential audiences that await media content owners – particularly when it comes to back catalogues – if they can just get their content up and available online.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
There’s some interesting commentary on the report over on PaidContent.org with UK editor, Robert Andrews pointing out how YouTube is gobbling up UK eyeballs.
Over to you…
What do you think about the implictaions of online video content consumption doubling in a single year?
What’s your opinion on what TV companies should be doing in the UK?
What shouldn’t they do?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Photo credit: www.executivecaddie.com
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