More People Watching TV Online
By Anna Johnson on September 9th, 2009Research by The Conference Board and TNS indicates that one out of four U.S. households watches TV online, up from 20 percent in 2008.
The television networks continue to be the most popular sites for watching TV, but Hulu is catching up, with visitors growing almost fourfold in the last year.
The results of the research – based on surveying 10,000 households across the U.S. – reveal that almost 80 percent of consumers go online for entertainment, with entertainment regarded as one of the most important Internet activities, behind only personal communication and work-related activities.
News shows are the most popular types of online TV programs – viewed by around 43 percent of online TV viewers. About 35 percent of online viewers watch sitcoms, comedies and dramas, while 19 percent of online TV viewers watch reality shows and 18 percent follow sports. Other
popular online content are previews, user-generated content, extra content from favorite shows, soap operas and yes, even advertisements.
Over two-thirds of online TV viewers consume online television content via the official network’s website, while 42 percent of online TV viewers watch television on YouTube.com. Hulu.com, which offers streaming video from several major television networks, has seen its viewership catapult from 8 percent of households in 2008 to 32 percent in 2009.
