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Internet & IT
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2006-11-29 05:54:21-05
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Online videos eating into TV viewing time
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London, Nov 29: The boom in viewing video clips, forwarded over the internet and posted on sites such as YouTube, is starting to eat into TV viewing time of Britons. A BBC Online survey has found that the online video craze is eating into the time that young people spend watching television, with 43 per cent of those who watch video from the internet or on a mobile device at least once a week saying they now watch less normal television as a result. And online and mobile viewing is rising - three quarters of users said they now watched more than they did a year ago. However online video viewers are still in the minority, with just 9% of the population saying they do it regularly, another 13% said they watched occasionally, while a further 10% said they expected to start in the coming year. The ICM poll found that online and mobile video is far more popular among the young, with 28 per cent of those aged 16-24 watching more than once each week. They also claim that television companies such as BBC, ITV and Channel 4 who are losing viewers to the net, are now launching channels to show "viral videos" from the end of this year or the start of 2007. The success of sites like YouTube over the past year has helped open the door for those who want easy ways to find, watch and share videos over the Internet. The UK is not yet as advanced as the US, where hit TV shows are routinely available from networks' web sites and services like iTunes. In the survey, one in five people who watched online or mobile video at least once a week said they watched a lot less TV as a result. Another 23% said they watched a bit less, while just over half said their TV viewing was unchanged. Some 3% said online video inspired them to watch more TV.
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