The Wall Street Journal-20080214-Nielsen Online Takes a Look At How People Use Web Video

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Nielsen Online Takes a Look At How People Use Web Video

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In its first significant study of how people consume online video, Nielsen Online has found that women tend to favor network television on the Web, while men are drawn to user-created content.

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to tune into videos on TV networks' Web sites, according to Nielsen Online's first public release of its research into online-video viewing habits.

At the same time, on user-generated media sites, such as YouTube, men 18 to 34 years old were more than twice as likely as women in the same age group to watch videos. That may be because the content and programming now available on user-generated sites consists mostly of short, humor-driven clips that appeal more to young, male audiences, says Michael Pond, a media analyst with Nielsen Online. Nielsen Online is the Web-measurement unit of media-tracking company Nielsen Co.

Online-video viewing has become a standard Web activity -- Nielsen Online says 73% of active Web users watched online video in December -- but marketers are eager for more information about viewership patterns to help them decide how to advertise alongside this content.

Among the other findings: Online-TV viewers are fairly loyal to a particular network's Web site, whereas people are more likely to watch videos on a wide variety of user-generated-content sites. Fans usually tune into a network TV Web site to watch a particular show, find background information or interact with the show in other ways, Mr. Pond says. For example, just 16% of the viewers who watched video content on ABC.com also watched shows on NBC.com.