All Eyes on Online Video

The viewer's eyeballs are transitioning toward online videos and away from television sets. ICM has conducted a study for BBC in which it concludes that 43% of British viewers watched less T.V. as they increasingly prefer video content over the Internet or on mobile devices.

Another 53% of interviewed viewers claimed that online videos have not influenced their T.V. habits. According to them, the online content just added on top of the television content. Just 3% of the participants said that their T.V. viewing time increased as a result of online content.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of the partnership signed between CBS and YouTube. As a result of uploading CBS content to YouTube, the network's shows increased their audience by an estimated 300,000 people while the online videos were watched a total of 29 million times. But this does not change the fact that online content is eroding T.V. viewing. Consequently, several British networks plan to deliver on demand shows over the Internet, falling in with the user tendencies.

More important, the aspects illustrated by the ICM survey are valid at a global stage. ICM's study looked at in excess of 2,000 16+ people and found that people between 16 and 24 have transitioned to online viewing.