TV Downloads on the Rise.

During Disney’s third-quarter conference call, CEO Bob Iger revealed some interesting statistics about the delivery of some of the media company’s TV content online. For example, during the fall, users have requested more than 19 million episodes of the six series being shown on ABC.com 24 hours after airing on the network. About 12 million ABC shows have been sold on iTunes since the launch in October 2005, or an average of roughly one million a month. In addition, nearly 500,000 Disney movies have been sold on iTunes since its inception, and since June 2006, 53 million episodes and shorts have been played at DisneyChannel.com. Commenting on the statistics, Mr. Iger said that “TV viewing and Web use can reinforce rather than cannibalize each other when you have a terrific product.”

All the alarmist claims that digital video recorders (DVRs), video-on-demand (VOD) and emerging online platforms will cause the death of TV and result in the loss of billions of dollars worth of advertising dollars are just plain wrong. TV distribution and access are changing, to be sure; audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented, that is true; primetime is not what it used to be, admittedly, but with every challenge comes an opportunity. More people will watch more TV and video content in the future, not less. They will just be doing it in different ways — via the TV, the Internet, the PC and their portable devices.

eMarketer estimates that by 2010 there will be 157 million online video users in the US, up from approximately 108 million in 2006.

Currently, the leading paid video download site is iTunes, according to NPD Group, but it is likely that YouTube and other sites will emerge as serious competitors to iTunes in the future.

While TV networks may be losing primetime audiences and hence their revenue bread and butter, new revenue streams such as downloads of TV programs from the Internet may emerge as the money for jam. Veronis Suhler Stevenson estimates that by 2010 spending on downloads for TV programs will total $625 million, up from only $12 million in 2005. When revenue from paid-for-downloads via cable is added in, the total is put at $938 million in 2010, up from $82 million in 2006.

Courtesy of http://www.emarketer.com