Beyond the Box: Television and the Internet explores the complex relationship between television and the internet in today’s society, and what this means for viewers today and what the blending of these two will mean into the future.

The Internet and How it Changes Television Viewing

Author Sharon Marie Ross proposes that things are radically changing in terms of television viewing across the country. From texting votes for ‘American Idol’ to online forums and sites dedicated to programs like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, the internet is changing the very nature of television viewing and how the television industry responds to the public.

Whereas, in the past, a limited selection of programs would have a niche market of fans appealing to networks via letter-writing campaigns, the internet has now brought the interaction of the public, via the internet, into the mainstream.

The Internet & Moving Television Beyond

Ross presents an excellent overview of the online shift of the television viewing audience and how the internet has given a much more dynamic voice to fandom and participation into the nature of television programs via means of tele-participation.

Continue Reading…

Online video is growing ever more popular, particularly in the United States. But it’s YouTube which continues to drive market penetration, with Hulu leading the rest of the growing pack.

Online Video Viewer Stats

Online video is showing no signs of slowing down in growth. As the latest comScore statistics for December 2009 show.

178 million Internet users in the U.S. watched online video during the last month of the decade. Which equates to almost 87 percent market penetration.

Between them they watched over 33 billion videos in December, or the equivalent of 187 videos each. The average length of video now stands at 4.1 minutes, up from 3.5 minutes around the same time last year.

Continue Reading…

Netflix’s streaming service, ‘Watch Instantly’, is becoming a bigger part of the company’s offering all the time. It’s adding 300 independent films to its lineup and boasting that almost half its subscribers now use this part of the service.

Watch Instantly

Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ is the streaming service that comes free as a part of the DVD-by-mail subscription. And it’s a growing entity, becoming more popular and being added to more devices all the time.

Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’, with its 17,000 movies and TV episodes, is now available through a number of source, including the PS3 and Xbox 360 games consoles, and it could be coming to the Wii soon as well.

The last we heard of the service was early in January when Netflix announced a controversial new deal with Warner Bros. that sees DVD releases delayed by a month but more titles offered up for streaming. Which suggests where the future of Netflix lies.

Continue Reading…

It cannot be denied that Hulu has had a good 2009, full of growth and innovation. But 2009 is now at an end, and 2010 is going to see Hulu facing new challenges. What will the new year hold for the free online television service?

Hulu On The Rise

Hulu has had a fairly rapid rise from being an also-ran to a competitor. The American public – who after all are the only ones allowed to access the service – has taken to it well enough for it to now be considered mainstream.

2009 has seen Hulu rise to the number two spot for video views in the U.S. and then cement that position with impressive growth. OK, so it’s a long way behind YouTube in number one but the chances of the Google-owned site being caught are zero.

Continue Reading…

Persuasive Online Video is the world’s first class dedicated to using web video to influence and change behavior.

It was born out of the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab based near Silicon Valley and was founded by BJ Fogg and Enrique Allen in the Spring of 2009.

The education takes the form of a series of winter workshops (open to the public for a fee – see below) and a follow up Stanford class in the Spring, with the aim of furthering research into the intersection of the online video industry and academic innovation.

The methods and metrics for changing behavior using online video are the core concepts of the course.

A Persuasive Online Video Assignment in Action

The example video below is an assignment from the class where students picked a controversial cause to promote, and then utilized online video to spread the message:

Continue Reading…

Hulu is rising once again after having what can only be described as a lull in its incredible growth. Thanks mainly to a new season of TV programming and the addition of ABC content, the U.S. TV catch-up service is growing. Let’s just hope the new embed policy doesn’t hinder that growth.

Hulu On The Up

According to AdAge, Hulu is growing once again after experiencing a few months of static or even negative growth. Figures from the comScore Video Metrix suggest Hulu grew almost 47 percent from September to October.

Over the last month Hulu has served an estimated 856 million video streams, up from the 583 million streamed during September. Unique visitors also rose, up 10 percent from 38.7 million to 42.5 million.

This represents an even bigger jump in viewing figures than that experienced after the Super Bowl ads in February which prompted a 33 percent rise.

Continue Reading…

Every month new viewing figures for online video are released and they tend to follow a similar pattern – YouTube at the top, and everyone else scrabbling for top 10 positions. However, this month saw something different, with Facebook surprising everyone by jumping to third.

Online Video Stats

Nielsen, as well as a number of other companies, measure the number of streams viewed on online video destinations every month.

October was no exception, although the figures were more interesting than usual. mainly because while the top two of YouTube and Hulu remained the same, there were some big changes after that. And it could be the start of a trend set to get stronger over the next few months/years.

Continue Reading…