A BBC / ICM poll showed yesterday that online video was eroding television's market share. The research found that nearly half (43%) of the 2,000-odd people questioned who watched video online admitted they watched less TV as a result. You can almost hear the broadcasting behemoths quaking in their boots.
Or can you? Further research from US network, CBS, seems to show the opposite. Ian Delaney spotted it and quotes from the channel's press release:
"CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” has added 200,000 (+5%) new viewers while “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” is up 100,000 viewers (+7%) since the YouTube postings started."
This is really interesting stuff and gives us a glimpse of the difference between broadcaster attitudes in the States and the UK.
CBS in the States is actively using YouTube as a marketing tool to (in their words) 'seed' TV shows with a potential online audience.
This is something I'm not aware the BBC is doing. I posted earlier in the year about coming across snippets of the BBC's (then) new Armando Iannucci show, Time Trumpet, on YouTube. But these weren't uploaded as official BBC material and frankly were a bit too short/cut up to be worthwhile to anyone not familiar with Iannucci's material.
Maybe the BBC will use the findings to inform its online marketing but even if so, whoever picked the headline stat for the news story went with the scary "Oh my God! No-one's going to watch TV anymore!" which certainly won't be the case as Simon Wakeman makes clear in a comment on Ian Delaney's blog:
"A few years down the track the distinction between broadcast TV and online video will be less anyway, as more content is consumed online on demand, whether it’s shared video or video from “traditional” broadcasters."
It goes to show that a lot of UK media companies still aren't understanding the full benefits or impact of online consumption.
As a footnote, the CIPR's newly released consultation Code of Conduct has a reminder for PR practitioners that they have a duty to obey copyright laws when dealing in social media. That's fair enough I suppose. Everyone has an obligation to obey the laws of the land.
But what about when practitioners' clients are faced with the dilemma of allowing people to share content which will breach copyright laws but potentially increase the client's audience or market-share?
Interesting and confusing times.
Recent Comments