Free TV Streaming Making Inroads

According to the NPD Group, while traditional pay TV operators and broadcast networks still dominate the consumer television landscape, subscription VOD, electronic sell-through (EST) and free TV streaming are gaining market traction. While SVOD drives the most online TV streams by far, the incidence of consumers who used SVOD and free streaming in 2012 was relatively equal. According to NPD, 12% of U.S. TV watchers reported streaming TV shows for free during the prior three months, compared to 14% who watched a TV show via SVOD."Over half of the viewers for streaming TV are between the ages of 18 and 34, so the YouTube generation is evolving from short-form and user-generated content to TV shows and, like YouTube, they can watch where and when they want," said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis at NPD, adding that 83% of free TV streaming programs are viewed on a computer.Nearly all broadcast and cable TV networks offer free streaming of their programming via the Internet; however, based on NPD's latest information, consumer usage of free-streaming TV sites varies. Hulu dominated free streaming TV, accounting for 43% of total streams during 2012. After Hulu, the five broadcast network sites (CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, and CWTV) accounted for another 30% of total streams. Four cable TV sites - abcfamily.com, comedycentral.com, MTV.com, and A&ETV.com - round out the top 10 free streaming TV sites.