Head on over to NewTeeVee to check out Chris Albrecht’s breakdown of Nielsen’s new research on the impact of online video on the ol’ boob tube.
The quick skinny – Video consumption is up online, on mobile and, yes, it continues to increase on TV as well.
“Viewers appear to be choosing the best screen available for their video consumption, weighting a variety of factors, including convenience, quality and access. It is clear that TV remains the main vehicle for viewing video, although online and mobile platforms are an increasingly important complement to live home-based television.”
This is what I’ve been saying for a long time, and continue to point back to the David Lynch video about watching a movie on an iPhone. The experience with online video and mobile video needs to be looked at relative to your alternatives. David Lynch is right. Watching a movie on an iPhone does suck. But it doesn’t suck as badly as listening to the crying baby in the row behind you on the plane. Catching a rerun of an episode online beats the hell out of not seeing it at all, and certainly outweighs the risk of being caught downloading it from an unauthorized source. And watching some video clips during lunch isn’t going to impact your TV viewing. In fact, online video can be the primary discovery tool for what you will watch on TV.
At the end of the day, when you go home and sit down on your sofa, your big TV with true high-def sources and surround sound is always going to be a better experience than streaming it. And thats why online video isn’t having a negative impact on TV consumption. Online and mobile video augment and extend the experience – they give you the opportunity to watch more video in more places – but you’re first choice is always to fire up the plasma.