Games consoles have this week been listed as the most popular platform on which people watch online TV through their TV sets, suggesting that the ability to connect mobile devices (such as tablet computers and smartphones) and desktop browsers streaming content are not quite as mainstream as most would have thought, with the same applying for the purpose-made and Internet-connected ‘smart TV’s’.
The survey of online TV users in the USA was conducted by the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices, in a report entitled Multiscreen Connected TV: Assessing Device Usage and Ownership.
It discovered that while computers (and monitors) are still the most prominent approach to watching content online, many viewers prefer to connect their online devices to a larger TV screen, with games consoles (and their online TV services) seen as the easiest way to achieve this, with IP-based content generally delivered to the bigger screen via HDMI cables.
A key statistic released was that a total 12% of households in the USA use game consoles (mainly the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360) as a means of watching online content as a whole (as compared to just TV screens), a rate higher than that of any other device-to-TV method.
Meanwhile, age could be seen as starting an upward trend of alternative online TV, with around 65% of Xbox 360 aged under 25 claiming to use their console as their main means of accessing TV series and films online, with computer-based viewing lower down the list.
Jia Wu, a senior analyst on the survey, said of the results of his team’s research: “These findings indicate significant levels of consumer demand for such services. The upcoming Xbox TV launch for the holiday season will demonstrate an expansion of the partnership between the games consoles and the online TV and video industries. Games consoles have already become the key media hub in US households.”