The evolution of on-demand media

An investigation into online video services and their

influence on college students’ viewing habits
WIM MULDER
Problem statement

What effect does the availability of full

streaming episodes on network
websites have on the viewing habits
of college students?
Definition of terms

Full streaming episodes

A full length episode of a TV show in the same
form as it was broadcast on television (with
exception of commercial interruptions).
Definition of terms

Network websites
The online on demand video services offered by
broadcast networks on their website
Definition of terms

Viewing habits
The media consumption patterns of a television
viewer (what shows are watched, how many times,
is the viewing consistent or just occasional, etc.)
Definition of terms

College students
Students enrolled at Kutztown University, taking
General Education HPD 110 classes or SPE 010
classes.
Quick topic overview

Since beginning of television more and more

programming has become available to viewers

As different technologies have become available

to viewers, the viewers’ use of the media has
changed
Quick topic overview
The VCR first
introduced the concept
of being able to view
programming at a
different time from its
original broadcast

Television viewers
became less
dependent on network
schedules
Quick topic overview

DVRs made personal video recording easier, but

are a potential disaster for advertisers and therefor
television networks

Networks started putting shows online around

2006 / 2007, to regain advertising money from
their programming
Quick topic overview

Online viewing has started to pick up, viewers are

watching more content online
Methods

14 Question survey distributed in General

Education classes

202 students from HPD 110 and SPE 010 took the
survey
THE SURVEY
Survey
Paper survey rather than online survey

Easier to control who answered the survey

Targeted at general education classes, because

the sample is not skewed towards a certain
major

Quicker turnaround
Survey

202 respondents

18 percent 18 or under, 53 percent 19 to 20, 19

percent 21 to 22

84 male (42 percent)

115 female (57 percent)

LOW TELEVISION CONSUMPTION
Television consumption

Relatively very low television consumption

Almost 90 percent (87.6%) of the students

watch under 10 hours of television per week

According to Nielsen, the average American

watches about 31 hours of television per week
Television consumption

Students have watched less television this year

than the previous year

Mostly due to the fact that most respondents were

freshmen, and going from high school to college
got a more demanding schedule

Students indicated that

THEY HAVE LESS TIME AVAILABLE THAN BEFORE
HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS
STUDYING
WORKING A JOB
MOST STUDENTS WATCH TELEVISION ONLINE
Watching TV online
The majority of students watch television online
(60.9 percent)

Most important reasons for watching online are

the flexibility to watch any time of the day, fits in
with the students’ schedules

A lot of students like to catch up on older

episodes they haven’t seen yet (72.4 percent), or
watch episodes that they missed on television
(74.8 percent)
 Reasons for viewing television content online
100

80

60

40

20

0
Number of respondents

Having to watch fewer commercials Getting better video quality than traditional television
Discovering new television shows that I haven’t seen before Being able to watch shows any time of day, on my own schedule
Catching up on older episodes that I haven’t seen before Watching an episode that I missed on television
Watching an episode again after it was broadcasted on television Other
Exclusivity

Most respondents use both internet and traditional

television (regardless of particular shows) to watch
programming (58.4 percent)

35 percent watches some of their shows

exclusively online, and others on television
Use of different online video services
80

60

40

20

0
Number of respondents

Hulu Network websites TV.com Youtube Fancast Others

Online viewing time
Students also spent a low amount of time
watching television online

88.6 percent of the respondents (who watched

television online) watch 4 hours of television online
or less

The amount of people watching online has

increased. 12 percent of respondents indicated
not watching online a year ago

Time spent watching online has increased. Most

common viewing time a year ago was less than 2
hours (52 percent)
WHY ARE STUDENTS NOT USING VIDEO ONLINE?
Online viewing time

Students don’t know how to use these services

They think it is too slow

They don’t have time for it

Or they like watching on a regular television better

TRADITIONAL TELEVISION
Traditional television

Most students still prefer a traditional television set

over watching programming online (74.8 percent)

Watching on a traditional television is more

comfortable

It allows you to watch with multiple people more

easily
LIMITATIONS
Limitations

Due to the low amount of television watched by

the students it was hard to discover any trends

Results were not nearly as clear as expected

Study only looked at use of online video services,

if DVR viewing were to be included the study
might have been able to provide a more complete
picture of the use of on-demand media
THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION
The future
Online video services are starting to get integrated
with traditional television through set-top boxes
(for example TiVo)

Media use is moving towards mobile

consumption, ownership of mobile devices that
allow for video playback is rapidly increasing
(iPods, iPads, Zune)

Television advertising is changing (more in-

program ads, integrated commercials)

Syndication of episodic television shows is

becoming obsolete
Research suggestions

Look at different on-demand media besides just

online viewing

Use a more varied sample that gives a more

general view of trends in media use
WIM MULDER | WIMMULDER@GMAIL.COM
KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA