Television Channels Try Free Content As Online TV Usage Increasing

Another day, another broadband study, this time about those who watch television programs online. For those of us who are old enough to remember dial-up watching full length TV programs online without any significant loading time still seems amazing. Now that speeds have increased around 15% of those 'with a reliable broadband connection' use the BBC's iPlayer service to watch programs online.



Television channels are starting to realize that they need to put their content online for free in order to reach viewers who are watching less television. They know that if they don't offer their content online somebody else will and they might as well be getting the ad revenue. Channel 4 have recently put a large percentage of their back catalog online via their 4OD service after failed experiments with an online pay-per-view service.

The stats from this study would seem to contradict those of a recent study by YouGov into online viewing. 53% of those asked by YouGov said that they would not watch more online TV even if they had a faster, more reliable connection. Whatever the stats say it seems to me that the idea of watching a program at a fixed time via a television will one day seem as old fashioned as dial-up.