20% of television viewing now occurs online

Fact recorded on: July 29, 2008. Categories: Advertising, Television, WWW.

IMMI has found that up to 20% of episodic content viewing occurs online, depending on the genre of the content and the amount of time the show has been on the air. The most common observation are panelists who first watch a television show live then watch at least one episode later online (41%). The second largest group for this particular network were those who first watch a show delayed then online (31%) at a later date.

Comparing online viewers to live viewers we see that the two largest groups are 25 to 44 year olds making up 58.4% of online viewers. While the common belief is 13 to 24 year olds are the ones consuming online episodic content, we find the exact opposite is the case with only 19.1% of 13-24 year olds viewing primetime shows online.

Looking at gender we see there is a slight shift with females (55%) more inclined to watch primetime episodes online than males (45%). After investigating live primetime viewing we see an equal distribution of males to females.

Primetime network shows are primarily consumed online by Caucasians (76.8%), with Hispanics being the second largest group at 10.5%. Caucasians are 21% more likely to watch episodes online. African Americans are less than half as likely to watch episodes online. There is no noticeable difference among Asians.

When analyzed viewership by income groups we see that online viewers are more affluent than live network primetime viewers. For those who earn $40,000 a year or less are 75% more likely to watch a primetime network show live than online. Those households that earn $80,000 a year or more are 56% more likely to watch a network show online.

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