A new study indicates that YouTube is now the most popular source for video consumption: 68 percent of all viewers surveyed are consuming video content from YouTube, while 51 percent draw their content from traditional pay-TV and 49 percent get theirs from Netflix. Adroit Digital‘s report – Online Video: Look Who’s Watching Now – surveyed 2,000 Americans ages 18 and over to gauge how viewers consume online video and respond to video advertising.
While it is perhaps surprising to some that YouTube has beaten out both Netflix and pay-TV in terms of popularity, the bigger news out of Adroit Digital’s report is that video-delivered ads have surpassed text-based ads in terms of their influence and effectiveness – and not just for young people, either. 68 percent of the study’s respondents claimed they would be more influenced by a short video than a text-based ad when seeking new product information. 72 percent of those aged 18-24 made the same claim, while 62 percent of those 45 and over did as well.
This implies that video isn’t just compelling for younger consumers who’ve grown up in a world saturated with digital content. The majority of those aged 45 and over feel the same way, and this figure will likely continue to rise as consumers of all ages become increasingly immersed in video content. But can’t viewers just skip through commercials or walk away from their TV sets, you might ask? Of course, but the numbers show that many don’t. 51 percent of those surveyed said that when watching a 30-minute recorded or on-demand program, they are more likely than not to watch the entire program, commercials and all.
But the significance of this changing landscape isn’t lost on consumers as they are plunged – willing or not – into this new frontier. Adroit Digital’s survey indicates that 59 percent of all respondents “believe their TV set is transforming into an overgrown monitor for their self-selected content viewing.” This “overgrown monitor” is certainly the direction in which the TV industry is headed, but the question is: what will this new platform of so-called self-selected content viewing end up looking like? [image: PiXXart/Shutterstock]
