I read an eye-opening study over the weekend on video consumption conducted by the Nielsen company’s Council for Research Excellence (CRE). The study was shocking to me because of the strong position traditional television still has, even among the youngest demographics.  According to Nielsen, 99% of the video people watch is on TV, the other 1% is on computers.  While the youngest demographic, the 18 to 24 year old age group, watches twice as much video on the computer (2%), they are still watching the vast majority, 98% of their video, on a television set. Click here to read the entire article, Ground-Breaking Study of Video Viewing: Traditional Television Remains “800 Pound Gorilla” In Video Media Arena.

Perhaps my full-time job, which is in the Internet world, has tainted my perspective, but I expected the percentage of online video consumption to be much higher, especially for the younger demographic.  Perhaps also contributing to my mis-perception of the size of online video consumption is my personal use of YouTube, and presentations I hear, like one a few months ago I heard by an executive of a leading provider of online video streaming technology.  The executive said that 18 to 24-year-olds don’t even buy television sets anymore because they watch all their video online. Seeing the Nielsen data, though, made me realize that statement was either based on anecdotal evidence or was simply an exaggeration.  Without a doubt, the younger generation is moving fast in the direction of online video consumption, but for now it is still but a small fraction compared to sitting on the couch and watching the good old TV.

The study found that the average American watches 309 minutes of live TV per day, that’s just over 5 hours. On top of that they watch an average of 23 minutes of DVDs/videotapes and 15 minutes of DVR/TiVo.  Now I don’t know if I’m out of touch with America or what, but how can people watch so much TV?  Personally, I can hardly find any programs worth watching anymore.

The study was conducted by having researchers follow around subjects and record their video video activity. This methodology is used because people tend to overestimate their use of online video usage, while underestimating their amount of TV viewing by 25% on average.  This is why Jakob Nielsen’s first rule of usability is don’t listen to users, instead, watch what they do.

Other interesting findings from the study were that the average person spends 49 minutes per day browsing the Web and 37 minutes a day on email.  Mobile phone use came to about 20 minutes per day.  It’s also interesting to note that the computer has replaced radio as the second biggest channel for media activity.  This is true even in big cities where commute times can be long and drive-time radio remains popular. Radio is now in third place with print media in fourth.

Conclusion

The Church has made some great strides recently by starting several YouTube channels (LDS Public Affairs, Mormon Messages, and New Era MormonAds), and posting timely videos about topics such as Why Mormons Build Temples.   While these developments are wonderful, I guess I was just a little disheartened to realize that these online videos are, at most, only 1% of the total video watching experince of most people.  So for now, online viewing of video is still only a blip on the radar compared to viewing on TV, but at least we still have BYU TV out there.

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