Nielsen published it’s ‘Three Screen Report’ earlier today and the report indicates a few interesting trends across television, online, and mobile.
Television:
- Television viewing continues to grow. Despite this fact, overall advertising revenue across TV, newspapers, and print are sharply lower. From the Wall Street Journal: “The sluggish worldwide economy took a toll on U.S. advertising spending in the first half of 2009 to the tune of a 15.4% decline, Nielsen Co. said Tuesday, reflecting steep declines at television stations, newspapers and national and local magazines alike.”
- While the number of subscribers watching “TV in home” grew at a 0.9% rate, time-shifted TV viewers were up 32.2%.
Online:
- 83% of online video content is still dominated by short clips.
- The growth in online video was slower than DVRs and mobile devices.
Mobile:
- Fastest growth in number of users. (70%).
- Limited audience, as compared to those using TV and web.
Overall Analysis:
One of the biggest surprises is that time-shifted TV continues to grow at a double-digit pace. As DVRs continue to penetrate the market, this platform would significantly increase in importance. Furthermore, since many DVRs are connected to the Internet, the same hardware could play a crucial role in the digital living room.
Currently, Microsoft’s XBOX 360 platform offers the ability to deliver television programming as well as content from Netflix. Enabling DVR functionality on this device could have a staggering impact in the home entertainment market.
Furthermore, Internet connected TiVo devices offer the ability to connect with various data sources, such as YouTube and Amazon. Along with DVR functionality, it’ll be interesting to see how the device improves over time. However, with declining subscription revenue, TiVo has a long way to go.
In terms of online video, a a staggering percentage of viewers still watch only short clips. However, no such analysis is available for independently produced episodic content.
Lastly, mobile is still an area of huge growth, as it grew 70%. With many cellular providers requiring data subscriptions for smart-phones, it’s one area where innovation has just started.
Overall, it doesn’t look like anything is consolidating. While advertising revenues across traditional mediums are down, viewership is still growing and each platform is delivering unique content.
