Business Insider recently featured a chart by MLB Advanced Media, a company which produces MLB.TV and sells subscriptions to live baseball games streamed online. MLBAM provided Business Insider with a chart that compared their audience’s viewing habits in 2011 to viewing habits in 2012. The results? Viewing habits have evolved over the years, and media companies should watch this trend.
Here’s the chart:
Basically, it shows that people who watched MLB games only on their desktop have fallen by almost half on a year over year basis. On the other hand, people who watched games on desktop, smartphone, and connected devices like Xboxes nearly doubled.
The takeaway: people want to watch video wherever they can and on whatever device they have available. People aren’t streaming media solely from their computers anymore. We’re a mobile audience, whether that means we’re watching video from a comfy couch or on a wi-fi enabled bus.
Media companies should keep these developing viewing habits in mind because it paints a clear picture for the television audience, too. With things like Netflix available on gaming consoles, smartphones, and tablets, the viewing habits of television audiences have the potential to follow a MLBAM’s pattern within the next few years. Hulu Plus is a great example of this.
And besides, who wouldn’t enjoy streaming the latest episode of Dexter on their laptop via a paid subscription to Showtime? I would, but not if I have to purchase a monthly television subscription. Why? Because my viewing habits revolve around my computer and my smartphone (Showtime execs, please hop on the online subscription bandwagon before the new season of Dexter airs).
What do you think? Will online video trends force television media companies to update their viewing options?