BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.: Online video tracker OVGuide.com compared what people watch on broadcast TV versus network fare viewed on the Web. The overall result was logical--the so-called “reality” genre did better on TV, while scripted fare was preferred online. The gist is that reality loses its bite once the outcome is revealed. Serialized shows maintain a draw online because of the on-demand convenience not yet available in the downstream broadcast paradigm. Shows like “24,” “Heroes” and “Lost” also get a lot of repeat views online, OVGuide.com said. The tracker used its own search numbers and ratings information from Nielsen to make the comparison.
The Top 10 TV Shows Watched on the Web in March 2009:
ABC’s “Lost”
NBC’s “Heroes”
CW’s “Gossip Girl”
Fox’s “Family Guy”
CW’s “Smallville”
CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother”
Fox’s “24”
Fox’s “House”
NBC’s “Scrubs”
ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”
The Top 10 Broadcast TV Shows Watched on TV in March 2009:
Fox’s “American Idol”
ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars”
CBS’s “CSI”
ABC’s “The Bachelor”
CBS’s “The Mentalist”
CBS’s “NCIS”
CBS’s “Two and a Half Men”
CBS’s “60 Minutes”
ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy”
ABC’s “Desperate Housewives”
OVGuide.com said it had 33 million unique visitors, 400 million page views and 100 million searches in 1Q09, and added 430 new video sites to its search list. The directory sent more than 300 million impressions to online video publishers in the first quarter of this year, including ABC.com, AOL/Truveo, Hulu.com and YouTube. ABC’s is the top network TV site visited by OVGuide.com users. The WB is next, followed by CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW.
The SoCal video search start-up said it turned its first profit in January, though no sums were disclosed. The company also received a $5 million funding round that month from its incubator, Baroda Ventures of Los Angeles, the investment firm of David Bohnett, founder of GeoCities. The funding was to be used to further develop OVGuide’s video serch engine. -- Deborah D. McAdams
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