The Web is growing in importance as a delivery platform for television to the home and is expected to generate nearly $3 billion in 2013 in streaming services, according a new report from research firm In-Stat.
The report, “Web-To-TV Video Changes Everything,” finds that for those in the United States under 35 years of age, accessing favorite TV shows via the Web and watching them on their televisions is already commonplace. More than 40 percent of households with young adults in the United States do so at least once a month, the report said.
Efforts by HDTV manufacturers to build Ethernet ports and Internet access directly into sets as well as those of other consumer device makers to enable Web-to-TV video will only serve to accelerate this trend. “Once Web-to-TV video becomes simple and convenient, mass consumer adoption will follow quite rapidly,” said Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst.
According to In-Stat’s research:
- Within five years, the number of U.S. broadband households viewing Web-to-TV content will grow to 24 million.
- Twenty-nine percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the United States with game consoles use the devices to watch streaming video off the Internet.
- In five years, there will be 7.4 million U.S. broadband households that use media center PCs for streaming Web-to-TV content.
- TV networks and pay TV operators currently view online TV as additive to pay TV services, but Web-to-TV will ultimately force a complete restructuring of today’s video services.
- Video content will be optimized for broadcast or Web-to-TV based on content type.
