Nielsen said a look at the viewing of one 30-minute program on several platforms found that those watching it via video on demand watched it longer than those seeing it live or as a DVR recording.
Nielsen said the program was watched on average for 28 minutes via VOD, compared with 23 minutes via DVR and 20 minutes live. Nielsen said the initial finding could help “the approach of taking recently telecast programs and making them available via an on-demand menu with all national ads included (Recently Telecast VOD).” (For more on Comcast efforts to expand VOD ad revenue, see this Multichannel News story, subscription required.) Viewers have apparently accepted the practice of disabling fast-forwarding during VOD plays, Nielsen said, as on-demand users tend to watch more of the commercials shown in their programs. For the program analyzed, a higher percentage of non-live commercial viewing (55%) came from VOD for persons 18-24 when compared to DVR contribution, Nielsen said.
Nielsen also credited the rise of subscription VOD services such as Netflix – now in 29% of U.S. TV homes – with increasing viewer familiarity with all forms of VOD. In Netflix homes, 69.1% of TV is watched live, compared with 80.5% live viewing in non-Netflix homes, the research firm said.
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