14 DAY TRIAL // A new dedicated survey has learned that in the United Kingdom more people aged 15 to 24 watch music videos on the dedicated Internet sharing website YouTube than they do on top-rated music channels on TV. The study refers directly to the competition between the site and MTV, a television channel that has been the most viewed source of music videos since it was first created. Now, it would appear that more and more teenagers and young adults are watching the same things online, where they can integrate them into their social networks, rather than simply viewing them on television.
The difference between the percentages of users watching YouTube over MTV is not very significant, roughly 57 percent to 56 percent, respectively, but the importance of this statistic cannot go underrated. That is to say, while TV still holds a considerable advantage over the Internet in terms of news sources, it's being overtaken in other areas, such as entertainment. Experts attribute this trend to the growing expansion of interaction methods between online surfers, and on the TV's lack of interactivity.
“There is a significant shift in the way the youngest adult age group watches its music videos. One would think this age group would stick with watching music videos online as they get older. TV music channels are doing very well, but they need to look at exactly who is actually watching their channel. It's probably not who they think their target market is. There may be a case, when we do this again, that the market starts to fragment and that TV music channels will need to reposition themselves for an older market,” Ipsos' head of entertainment research, Ian Bramley, told the BBC.
On YouTube, the age segment 15-24 is the most well represented in terms of viewers, the research shows. That is to say, only 30 percent of people in the next age category, 25-34, watch their videos online rather than on television. The percentage is even lower for seniors, as the paper shows that only 3 percent of people more than 55 years old watch music videos on the Internet.