Consumers Embrace “Digital Home” Idea

What That Means for Web-Based Businesses…

As we started 2010 statistics and numbers gurus at Deloitte released their “State of the Media Democracy” report, which gave some insight into the latest craze – combining their top two obsessions: television and the Internet. The report revealed that as much as 65% of online users claimed an interest in connecting their televisions to the Internet, a big 7% leap from the study conducted in 2008. Web users across every age-based demographic – including 50% of surveyed seniors aged 55+ - stated that they wanted to watch web-based content and content saved to their computers on their traditional television sets.

Networked live television still ranked tops among regular TV viewers eager to catch their favorite programming, however thanks to free websites including Hulu.com, TV.com and direct network websites, as much as 5% claimed to have watched their favorite shows online. In fact, Internet users have been watching more TV year over year – averaging in at approximately 18 hours a week, with younger viewers checking in to watch 15 hours a week – up from 10.5 hours a week just two years ago.

So what does this mean to Web-based businesses? Are we losing our market share of Internet viewers to television programming? Should we switch our advertising from the ‘Net to the TV set? Absolutely not! This is a positive sign that the top two forms of content-based entertainment are merging together to form a mega-method for reaching new customers and targeting your demographic. This is really good news for Web-based and traditional businesses alike! Watch for Google and Apple to now speed that progress.

According to Deloitte, “Television content continues to fascinate Americans. The recession has increased demand for in-home entertainment, with consumers choosing to invest in the enhancement of their TV experience... [to] further blur the lines between TV and the Internet.” People are spending more time at home, and spending instead to up the quality of that time.

Aside from the merging of these two entertainment powerhouses, the study also found the television-based advertising was still the top method for bringing viewers to the Internet and for influencing the buying decisions of users across the generations. Online advertising was significantly less powerful than television advertising; however the figures varied greatly depending upon the age of the viewer.

According to the folks at eMarketer.com, this trend is only just beginning to grow. In fact, this year it is expected that over a third of all televisions sets sold in the US market will be enabled for use on the Internet. Programming providers are working hard to help bring customers over to view their streaming content – and of course, advertising.

What’s next for the Internet? Who knows? But it’s a good idea to keep your eyes, ears and idea tracks open so you’ll be ready to explore the next big thing to its fullest!

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