Has Video Killed Old Television Habits?

 

Making headlines today is Nielsen Online, the Internet measurement firm, reported some online video sites have doubled their audience since the strike began at the end of October.The study finds that the audience to sites such as YouTube has nearly doubled in the last year.

Video Sharing Websites Take the Lead

According to Pew Internet

• Nearly half (48%) of US net users visited a video sharing site during 2007.

• On a typical day, some 15% were either watching or posting video.

User Generated Videos Still Going Strong

• Some 54% of American adults now have a high-speed connection at home, compared to 45% at the same time last year.

• According to the Pew Internet Project, men are slightly more likely to use a video-sharing site than women - 53% compared to 43%.

• The younger audience is driving the increase with 70% of people under 30 using such sites.

With some 22% of Americans now shoot their own videos, with 14% of them posting at least some of that video online, how long will it be before we see those numbers increase?

Television Network Video Sites Get Traction

The BBC points out that “the on-going writers’ strike has meant that many popular programs are currently off-air in the US and, according to Nielsen Online, this has seen Americans turn in large numbers to online alternatives. ”

Voices.com’s V.P. of Marketing gave a favorable review of Hulu in her post entitled “Hulu.com Serves as TV Fix During the Writers Strike”.

Mrs. Ciccarelli poses the question “What’s your television viewing schedule been like since November 5th, 2007?”

If that date sounds vaguely familiar, it is the day that the Writers Guild of America first went on strike stopping production in its tracks as actors in support of the writers refused to cross picket lines and pop culture as we knew it began to rely solely upon news programs, reality TV and reruns.

Have you explored any alternatives and enjoyed online video during the writers strike?