WebProNews

Tag: Nielsen

  • Online TV Still Few People’s First Choice

    Online TV Still Few People’s First Choice

    This week’s big TV event was unquestionably the season premiere of "Lost"; lots of people have, over the course of the previous five or so years, become huge fans of the show.  But new stats imply that very few of them sat in front of computer monitors on Wednesday, rather than televisions on Tuesday, in order to watch the two-hour episode.

    Nielsen took a look at why people watch online TV, and the leading reason doesn’t have much to do with convenience or fewer commercials.  Instead, 54 percent of people simply watch TV online because they forgot to catch an episode as it aired.  And the next-most common reason, with 47 percent of people citing it, is similar: because they missed a large number of episodes.

    It’s not until you get down to the least popular reasons ("Another member of my household watches another program at the same time," "I watch TV programming online when I am at work," and "I watch TV programming online when I travel") that online TV sort of distinguishes itself.  Otherwise, it appears to act as more of a memory aid (or way to avoid buying DVDs) than anything. 

    The details relating to how people watch TV online also make the activity look like less than an integral part of everyday life.  Jon Gibs, Nielsen’s Vice President for Insights, Online and Cross Media, noted, "When we go online to watch TV shows, that activity dominates that particular online session," and "the viewing of TV shows online proves to be a rather solitary activity."

    This all makes for less than fantastic news for Hulu and YouTube.  Of course, we have to note that neither site is exactly starving for page views, regardless of people’s reasons for visiting them.

    Related Articles:

    > DivX Rolls Out Online TV Platform At CES

    > More People Watching Online TV

    > DVR Users Fans Of Online Television

  • Google Makes More Search Gains

    Google Makes More Search Gains

    December’s supposed to be a month of miracles, and – at least in terms of gaining market share – Google seems to have pulled off a minor one.  New Nielsen stats show that the search giant increased the distance between itself and competitors by a considerable amount.

    Nielsen put Google’s share of the U.S. search market in November at 65.4 percent.   That number increased to 67.3 percent for December, which works out to a gain of 1.9 percent.  Swings like that aren’t without precedent, but tend not to happen on a month-to-month basis.

    Yahoo, meanwhile, lost share.  Its numbers slipped from 15.3 percent to 14.4 percent between November and December.  And Bing suffered a similar fate, with Nielsen recording a drop from 15.3 percent to 14.4 percent.

    So it looks like it’s time to once again ask: how high and low can Google and its competitors’ market shares go, respectively?  And is there a point at which Google’s gains will work against it?  Opinion pieces about the "Microsoft of search" tend not to be complimentary, after all, and antitrust regulators are already growing uneasy.

    As always, we’ll check back in on the situation next month.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Phone Faces More Criticism Over Fee

    > "Google" Declared Word Of The Decade

    > German Justice Minister Likens Google To "Giant Monopoly"