Veoh: 40% Of Video Viewed During TV's Prime Time

More fodder for the "Web Stealing TV Eyeballs" meme: Veoh executives tell us that 40% of their video gets watched from 7pm to 11pm -- TV's prime time, give or take an hour. That's a bit surprising, given the consensus view that most video watchers are "snacking" on short stuff, presumably while goofing off at work.

You could also argue that it's a channel conflict problem for CBS, which has a distribution deal with Veoh to run full episodes of shows like CSI on the video aggregator. And for any other network that Veoh tries to strike a deal with (it just landed Viacom, and should start running programming from the cable guys in 45 days or so; it's still talking to Hulu). But Jennifer Betka, who runs marketing and programming for Veoh, has her pitch down. The networks aren't helping move eyeballs of the tube and onto the Web, she says -- they're helping reclaim ones that aren't watching TV in the first place.

This has a ring of truth to our ears. We don't watch anything on CBS, but if we did (We've seen "Without A Trace" a few times, and it was pretty good. Did you know Anthony LaPaglia is Australian?) we'd want to watch them on a big screen, not a Mac. But we're old -- we saw "Star Wars" in the the theaters the first time it came out.

SAI readers: Do you watch full shows online? And if you do, do you do it as a substitute for TV, or to augment your regular viewing habits? Let us know in comments below.

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