Where'd That Web TV Boom Go?
ZenithOptimedia says the top 10 TV network sites added only 2.9% more unique visitors in January, which means they actually lost market share, because the total Internet population added 3.2% more users. On the flip side, the folks who do go make it network sites are hanging out longer: Time spent on the sites increased 16.8%.
NBC, CBS and the other networks are making an effort to distribute their stuff beyond their home sites, so these stats don't tell the entire picture. But while we keep hearing that more and more people are happy to watch TV shows on the Internet, we haven't seen convincing evidence that it's happening.
The biggest loser among top sites was Turner's (TWX) Cartoonnetwork.com, down 11.8% in unique visitors; the biggest winner, NationalGeographic.com, was up 53.8%.
The rest of the top-10 in January according to ZenithOptimedia:
Foodnetwork.com: 9.2m uniques +5.0%
NBC.com: 8.3m uniques +10.8%
NICK.com: 7.9m uniques +4.5%
HGTV.com: 7.9m uniques +6.6%
ABC.com: 7.6m uniques -3.1%
MTV.com: 7.1m uniques +5.4%
Discovery.com: 5.9m uniques -5.5%
Cartoonnetwork.com: 5.7m uniques -11.5%
CBS.com: 5.1m uniques +25.5%
NationalGeographic.com: 4.5m uniques +53.8%
Total: 47.1 million Jan. 2007 vs 48.5 million Jan. 2008
See Also:
CBS Wins Battle Of The Network Web Sites
CBS: Online Ad Rates Higher Than Primetime TV
That does look like a huge improvement for them in the online space.
Catalyst for the "YouTube's" maybe, but for Media company properties, whose traffic is driven by their primetime schedules, it's rather impressive that traffic numbers were not significantly lower given the lack of professional content the past few months.
Thx.
now, can you please stop regurgitating the nonsense stats and metrics put out by all the web video companies? e.g. the completely substance-free metric "video views"?
thank you.
I noted that the ones at the top have the most content to offer, like Food Network's recipes; or the sites have an interactive component, like NBC's game shows and Nick's features for kids. In terms of growth, having the content on other sites, such as Hulu, CBS Audience Network and MySpace, works in driving traffic to the network site; contrary to ABC.com which is exclusive for ABC content. Other reason for ABC's decline could be that since they were the first to offer video streaming, they lost market share as others started doing the same.