While Americans are busy surfing the web, they are now taking television under their own control, with over 62% of those surveyed report they are now watching TV on their own schedule. Whether via Hulu or a DVR, or the other litany of online and time-shifting services available, people can’t be forced to sit down at 8PM to watch a specific program anymore.
This isn’t something that should shock anyone – we are all doing it – and as we do, we have seen more and more interesting ways of getting advertiser names in front of viewers – no matter their medium. Some interesting integrations are already occuring, with webispodes are appearing from NBC and other studios built around a brand. One such show uses American Family Insurance as the employer of the primary character, allowing for the tossing around of the name repeatedly.
As I rarely watch tv “live,” I understand what it is Americans want from TV. Choice. Not only channels, which only increased the number of concurrent options available, I wanna watch what I want, when I went. Sorry! Plus, if I do watch a “live show,” I record it to my DVR and start watching at 10-15 minutes after it starts, allowing me to skip through all the commercials.
As this study was done by Comcast, it’s interesting that it wasn’t a lower number. I guess it’s time for them to pitch On-Demand.
Source: Fast Company
