TV is the Dominant Platform for Watching TV

The Nielsen Company has released its annual The Cross-Platform Report for 4Q11 (registration required) and it contains some interesting bits, none more interesting to me than this chart.

The thing that jumps out to me, is that for all the talk in the multichannel industry about TV Everywhere -- watching what you want, when you want and where you want -- the dominant way to watch video is on TV.

Even in the groups that watch the most video on phones and on computers, such viewing is a small fraction of the total. This is a developing area and viewing will increase as more people have video-enabled phones. Also, demographic forces are pretty clearly going to increase online viewing as these 65+ people in this chart become a smaller part of the mix ("die off" sounds a bit harsh) and are replaced by today's younger people who will probably continue to use online video they way they have been (in other words, more than today's older people do).

What one always wonders about trends is whether this will transform the industry or effectively obliterate it? In other words, is the impact "DVR on the TV business" or "computer on the typewriter business"?

Making TV more convenient to view with result in more viewing. Convenience adds to consumption. Robert Woodruff, Coca-Cola's president, expressed his goal of putting the drink "within an arm's reach of desire" in 1923. That worked out pretty well for increasing the consumption of Coca-Cola.

However, portable TV is not an entirely new concept. I remember fondly receiving this as a gift in my early days in the television business.

Sony FDL-22 handheld television (1998) for more info

In its day, it was a pretty exotic piece of kit, but eventually languished for all of the now-obvious practical reasons. We didn't want a separate device just for watching TV on the go.

The mobile part of TV Everywhere sure looks like added value to the multichannel subscription rather than a separate video subscription. Verizon V-Cast, MobiTV and Media Flo have all found that they are either out of the mobile video business or have morphed the sale or sales pitch to be an adjunct to the sale of a mobile data plan. We didn't want a separate subscription just for watching TV on the go.

If there is any company that knows the value of TV Everywhere it is Netflix, since it is on virtually every possible video-viewing platform, but look at the breakdown of its usage...

click here for the Nielsen blog post from which this chart came

For clarity, this is a chart of how many users use the platform for watching Netflix (or Hulu), not how much they watch on the platform, but it is pretty clear that iPad and mobile phone usage are pretty far down the list and fit better into the concept of special use cases than primary usage. As regards watching long form video on a computer, I think most everyone has enough experience with that experience to draw their own conclusion on the attractiveness and/or use cases versus watching video on a television.

TV is the dominant platform for watching TV and likely will be for a long time. TV Everywhere is well worth providing, but strictly added value to the core usage.

Now, if someone delivers a quality service to your mobile phone and then you can painlessly send it to your big TV in high quality (like via AirPlay using an Apple TV)...that's a whole different competitive dynamic.

Tablets used while watching TV, readers in bed

Nielsen has done some research on tablet (e.g., iPad), electronic reader (e.g., Kindle) and smartphone usage.  No big surprises here -- people read in bed and a Kindle doesn't generate its own light (so is less likely to distract someone with whom you might share said bed) and there are already a number of TV guides that work on the big screen of a tablet (none of them work on a Kindle or smartphone).

Smartphone tops for "With family/friends", "Waiting for something", "Shopping/running errands" and "Commuting" -- the most mobile and social activities.

Reader tops for "Lying in bed" and "Other activities" (like, er, reading?)

Tablet tops for "Watching TV" (multitasking or using these guides, I would imagine), "Attending a Meeting/Class" (taking notes or pretending to do so) and "In the Bathroom" (well, it is about the size of a magazine).
 
In the U.S., Tablets are TV Buddies while eReaders Make Great Bedfellows (Nielsen Wire)

HBO GO - 1 million downloads in a week

HBO GO is an application for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) and Android which provides access to HBO programs on a VOD basis as added value to those who subscribe to HBO (and whose multichannel provider have a deal with HBO to authorize GO). Unlike distributor TV Everywhere schemes where the multichannel provider still aggregates the content and has the direct relationship with the customer, HBO GO allows HBO a direct relationship with its subscribers and puts the HBO content in its own garden, so to speak. ESPN's WatchESPN app is similar in these respects. It is semi-over-the-top.

How significant is the one million download figure? HBO has about 28 million subscribers. The main distribs that do not have deals for HBO GO are Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, which represent about 16% of multichannel subs, so the HBO GO potential universe is about 23.5 million and 1 million of that is about 4%. iOS and Android devices are not 100% penetrated, however.  If we assume they are 50% penetrated (which feels high) then the one million downloads represents 8% penetration, if we assume they are 27% penetrated (smartphones were 27% penetrated in the US in December 2010, but a good chunk are Blackberries and other OSs and the 27% doesn't include the incremental penetration of iPads and other tablets -- let's assume they offset each other), then the GO app is about 15% penetrated...not a bad start, which suggests that 1400 titles is a pretty compelling content offering.

HBO Gets it Right (paidcontent)