STUDY: INTERNET TV VIEWING NOT AFFECTING REGULAR TV VIEWING

People who have connected their TV sets to the Internet to watch streaming or downloaded shows are not dropping their cable or satellite connections, according to a new study by Nielsen Research for the Cable & Telecommunications Assn. for Marketing (CTAM). According to the study, titled “Life Is a Stream: Understanding Consumers’ Viewership of TV Shows/Movies via the Internet on TV,” 84 percent of those viewers say they are watching the same amount of regularly scheduled programs as they did before they connected their TV sets to the Internet — or more. Just 3 percent said that they had dropped their cable or satellite subscriptions. In an especially upbeat result, the researchers discovered that 54 percent of those participating in the study said that they had first discovered some new shows by watching them online and then began doing so as part of their regular TV viewing. The Hollywood Reporter quoted CTAM chief Char Beales as saying that watching TV shows via the Internet is “supplementing viewing of regularly scheduled TV, not replacing it.” Copies of the study are being made available to members of CTAM and others for $15,500 each.