Harris Report: YouTube Users Watch Less TV

January 29, 2007 World Screen

ROCHESTER, January 29: According to Harris Interactive,
about 32 percent of frequent YouTube users are watching less TV as a result of
the time they spend online.

Of the frequent YouTube users, 66 percent claim they are
sacrificing other activities when on YouTube, including other websites (36
percent), time spent watching TV (32 percent), email and other online social
networking (20 percent), work/homework (19 percent), playing video games (15
percent), watching DVDs (12 percent) and even spending time with friends and
family in person (12 percent).

The report notes that 42 percent of online U.S. adults have
watched a video on the Google-owned site. And 14 percent of those respondents
said they visited the site frequently. Further, 73 percent of frequent YouTube
users say they would visit the site less if it started including short video
ads before every clip.

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For adult males, 47 percent had watched a video on YouTube,
and 43 percent had used a network website like ABC.com. Thirty-eight percent
had watched video on a news site, followed by 31 percent each for Yahoo! and
Google and 20 percent for MySpace.

For females, just 36 percent have watched content on
YouTube, with 38 percent having used a network site. Thirty two percent of
respondents had used a news site for video, followed by 18 percent for Yahoo!
and MySpace and 17 percent for Google.

The Harris Poll surveyed 2,309 U.S. adults (ages 18 and
older) between December 12 and 18, 2006.

"We know from some of our other data on teens that
YouTube is just as popular with them as it is with young adults," says
Aongus Burke, the senior research manager at Harris Interactive's Media &
Entertainment Practice. "It has really emerged as a major force in, and
problem for, the traditional entertainment industry. Not only is YouTube using
a lot of their own content to steal the eyeballs they want the most, the site
has provided a launching pad to wholly new forms of user-generated video
entertainment that are gaining popularity quickly."