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The average American watches more than five hours of TV per day, but pretty soon that leisure time may be dominated by YouTube and other online video services.
In an address at CES 2016, YouTube's chief business officer Robert Kyncl argued that digital video will be the single biggest way that Americans spend their free time by 2020 – more than watching TV, listening to music, playing video games, or reading.
The amount of time people spend watching TV each day has been pretty steady for a few years now, Mr. Kyncl pointed out, while time spent watching online videos has grown by more than 50 percent each year. Data from media research firm Nielsen shows that it's not just young people watching online videos, either: adults aged 35 to 49 spent 80 percent more time on video sites in 2014 than in 2013, and adults aged 50 to 64 spent 60 percent more time on video sites over the same time period.
Why the shift?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday January 14 2016, @12:11AM
One aspect carefully not discussed is the social / cultural effect of atomization.
This is something that reality TV gets stuck into. People watch it as a "wallpaper" type event, but it seems the families to seem to cluster around to watch Strictly Dancing or X-Factor or a Baking show or whatever, root for "their" favourites week after week, and tune in to watch it live.
However as Mark Gatiss rightly states:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-11-09/mark-gatiss-overnight-figures-are-insane--people-will-be-watching-doctor-who-long-after-bake-off-is-over [radiotimes.com]
But Gatiss warns against comparing the "temporary popularity" of shows like Bake Off and The X Factor with a show with a "proper legacy" such as Doctor Who.
"Those episodes of Bake Off or The X Factor, and their virtues are manifest, will never be watched again. Yet Doctor Who will be watched in 50 years' time, 100 years' time. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I love things to be popular, I want things to be watched, but this sort of scrutiny is deadly."
"Better TV", dramas, comedys, etc, people watch when they want to. Dr Who comes out in the UK on a Saturday at some point. Rarely the same time, nobody really cares, and none of my peers know what time it's on, it just comes on at "some point" during Saturday evening, and they've watched it by Monday morning for watercooler chatting. At least when it was still good.
A mid-season episode had the following ratings
"The Zygon Invasion 3.87m (overnight) 5.76m (final) 6.49m (L+7) AI 82"
That's 3.87m watching it Saturday night, 1.89m recording it off air and watching it within 7 days, and 730,000 watching it on iplayer.
Sherlock "The Abominable Bride" was the winner of the Christmas ratings, pulling in a total of 11.6m viewers. Almost everyone in my peer group watched it (despite 4 in 5 people in the UK not watching it). 8.4m watched it the day it was broadcast, 3.2m (and most of my peer group fit into this) watched it later.
The trends are pushing against schedulers. And that's about time. If producers want that shared culture to drive viewers, they need to not only release globally at the same time, but also build a show that people want to talk about.