Prime time is no more about just TV. More and more people are now watching web videos during TV prime time.
Blip.tv
Scenes from Blip.tv’s ‘Anyone But Me’ (above) and ‘All’s Faire’ Web shows
Original Web series are finding a niche at night.
In a change from traditional online-video watching, which was built during daytime, providers of free original Web content and others that rerun TV programs are reporting strong viewership gains during evening hours.
At Blip.tv, which distributes tens of thousands of independent online video shows, peak viewing time has moved from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. a year ago to 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. across U.S. time zones.
Online video service Revision3’s prime-time views now top lunchtime views by 20%, a change from last year. Evening viewing at video site Break.com has grown 18% in the past eight months, while daytime viewing was up less than 5% in the same period.
The shift is likely to create new opportunities for Internet video providers, including access to new distribution platforms and premium advertisers. It also signals that Internet video providers could eventually lure people away from traditional television, analysts say—something the emerging industry has failed to do to date.
The rise in prime-time viewing also underscores how consumers are opening up to a wider array of content during nighttime, habits that will shape what they watch when they can get Internet and TV content on one device, said James McQuivey, an analyst at researcher Forrester Research.
“The moment we start doing more prime time Internet video viewing on the TV, then Internet video is actually competing with old-school television,” he said.