Online video is a substitute for DVRs, not television, a study by TVGuide.com has revealed.
According to the survey, 42 percent of those polled watch more content online than last year and "a large majority of those people said they were using online streaming services to simply catch up on missed episodes of their favorite shows," a WorldTVPC story said.
That doesn't mean everyone is streaming just to fill the hours between television viewing and bedtime. Eight percent of those polled said they were cutting back on cable and 10 percent said they used online streaming services because they've actually gone ahead and cut the cord.
"That's not to say everyone is cord cutting, or that cord cutting is the dominant factor, but it's a factor," Christy Tanner, vice president at TVGuide, said.
Just to add a bit more to the confusion about whether consumers are cutting the cord while looking for cheaper or free content or staying with their pay TV providers and using online streaming as a supplement, the study said consumers indicated they will pay for the television content they seek and 30 percent said they were watching more television through online pay services Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Hulu Plus than the previous year.
Forty-seven percent of those in the survey said they had participated in a situation where one friend or family member watched a show on a mobile device while another watched on a television set.
"What they're going to do is buy more [mobile] devices, all come back to the living room and at least be together while they're watching," Tanner explained.
For more:
- WorldTVPC had this story
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