Online Live TV Consumption Up 648 Percent (More Bad News For TV Networks)
By Anna Johnson on September 14th, 2010Not only are more people getting more of their TV fix from anywhere but the traditional TV networks and cable companies (see ‘Why Broadcast TV is Going The Way of the Dinosaur’), but the TV networks’ traditional strength – live TV – is also under threat from online live TV providers.
According to comScore, in the past year, U.S. audiences spent a whopping 648 percent more time watching live television on the Internet, frequenting such providers as Justin.tv, USTREAM, Livestream, LiveVideo and Stickam.
American online video consumers still spent much more time watching non-live TV. The growth in time spent on such sites as YouTube (up 68 percent) and Hulu (up 75 percent), however, is lower than the growth in live online video consumption.
What’s more, viewers tend to spend more time watching live TV than non-live TV online – the average live streamed video view is 7 percent longer than the average online video view.
Who are the top online live TV providers?
USTREAM, Justin.tv and Livestream are all vying for the title of leading online live TV publisher. And, depending on how you look at it, any of these three IS the top live online television provider.
Currently, USTREAM has the biggest audience – in July 2010, USTREAM reached more than 3.2 million unique viewers, with Justin.tv reaching 2.6 million and Livestream reaching 2.4 million.
When it comes to who is serving the most videos, however, Livestream is the top live online TV site. In July it served more than 160 million videos, compared to roughly 130 million from Justin.tv and just 20 million from USTREAM.
In relation to time spent with a given online live TV publisher, USTREAM comes out on top – its 20 million videos were viewed eight minutes longer on average than videos on Justin.tv, and 17 minutes more than those on Livestream.
Then again, Justin.tv is the leader in terms of total minutes watched. Justin.tv viewers spent nearly 900 million minutes watching Justin.tv, more than either of the other two leading sites.
Regardless of which online live TV provider is the top site, it’s clear that online live TV is a winner.
Source: Andres Palmiter, “Live Streaming Video Jumps 600 percent in Past Year, comScore, September 3, 2010
