Based off a yearly comparison study of 3,000 consumers conducted by Nielsen, video streaming on gaming consoles is on the rise while the number of people watching physical media is dropping. During 2010, ten percent of Xbox 360 owners watched video-on-demand or streaming services like Netflix through the Microsoft console. That number has climbed to 14 percent in 2011. In a similar trend on the PlayStation 3, nine percent of PS3 owners used the console to watch streaming content during 2010, but increased to 15 percent in 2011. The Nintendo Wii had the most significant growth spurt growing from a fifth of all users in 2010 to a third of all users in 2011.
Increased video streaming usage is likely due to wider availability of more streaming applications like Vudu and ESPN3 as well as increase reliance on streaming content from Netflix and Hulu Plus. Alternatively, physical media suffered on gaming consoles. Viewership of DVD or Blu-ray discs on the Xbox 360 fell by two percent and dropped by five percent on the PlayStation 3. However, total time spent on gaming consoles has increased by about seven percent over the previous year. In addition, time spent playing online games has increased by five percent on the Xbox 360. Sony’s PlayStation 3 saw a three percent drop in online gaming, but offline gaming increased by eight percent over 2010. Nintendo saw a slight drop in both offline and online gaming over the previous year.
One aspect of console usage that dropped across all platforms was listening to music or utilizing the Internet. While all consoles had approximately 11 percent of users utilizing these services during 2010, that number had fallen to approximately four percent in 2011. When it comes to watching downloaded movies or television shows, there’s been very little change year over year. It’s likely that more people are subscribing to streaming content through monthly fees rather than spending money on individual video purchases.
Its just way more convenient….if I get stuck with a movie that sucks on streaming I can just choose another..with a disk I have to mail it back and wait a day or 2
yes, just don’t take our physical games away!
You don’t want to play OnLive!? :)
need that faster internet first! and no… I like to own my games.
I would go strictly streaming if Netflix would get their arses in gear and add better content. About 80% of the time that I search for something to stream it turns out to be disc only (or even unavailable in some cases).
TechFreak from digitaltrends.com said:
You don’t want to play OnLive!? :)
I much prefer to own a physical copy of the games that I play. But for everything else, I stream it. With Hulu, Hulu Plus, and Crackle, you can view all of your favorite TV shows, lots of ones you never knew existed, as well as thousands of movies. With the exception of Hulu Plus ($8/month), this is free if you’re on XBOX Live. It’s not a perfect solution to cable + satellite, but I suspect it will be the turn-to-option for those who already own a gaming system, go online, and are tired pf paying $100 a month + to see that there’s nothing on. Streaming is the future. Of course, once it’s established, they’ll probably jack us like the other services did.
If I only owned at PS3 and did not have cable or satellite TV service this would be a great option for me, but since I do Blockbuster Movie Pass is a much better choice for me. Blockbuster Movie Pass allows users to stream 3,000 of the latest movies to their TV and 4,000 movies to their PC. Customers also have access to international movies as well, plus you can rent TV shows, movies, games and blu-rays by mail! This cost customers $10/mo and includes 20 premium movie channels. Blockbuster gets new releases 28 days before Netflix and Redbox and working for DISH Network I can tell you only or customers can get this package. New DISH Network customers can get 12 months free streaming and 3 moths free disc rentals.
I actually would love to use the Netflix blu-ray disc service, but my wife convinced me to go streaming only and use Redbox for the occasional disc rental. Not sure me like.
Robert, you need to try Vudu. They have a large library of movies and stream in HD with DTS sound. Typical Blu-ray quality movie is $3.99-5.99.
I have considered Vudu, but with all the content I currently get, I am not sure Vudu would be a good value for me. Thanks for the tip, though.
I hear ya. It doesn’t require a monthly subscription, you just pay for what you want to watch. I still use Netflix and Hulu for a lot of stuff and then Vudu to rent a lot of movies. They took the Blockbuster out of my area, so I am not able to rent Blu-rays anymore.
I live in a town in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, with a population less than 1,000. Way less. And I can stream in 720p. The time of ISP meeting the demands of our devices has come and passed.
Streaming….yeah right, I think I’ll be quite some time before the technology and ISP speeds can meet up with the demands of our devices.
I would partially agree. I use Netflix and Vudu on my PS3, but still record shows on my regular DVR. I think a lot of console owners are younger people (not necessarily kids) that use streaming as a cheap way to watch shows. Smart to me!