Watching ESPN Online: Not the Milestone It Looks Like
Maybe for the truly ESPN-addicted, the fact the cable network can now be streamed online by Time Warner Cable customers is exciting, but so far, there's little to indicate that this innovation -- even though it's perhaps the first time a cable channel will stream online, live -- is truly game-changing.
The arrangement, which started yesterday, is part of TV Everywhere, the cable industry program in which subscribers to certain cable companies who authenticate their account online can watch the medium's content there. While from a technological standpoint this is big news, from a viewership perspective it's not, especially when it comes to streaming live games. Ironically -- and I'll explain why it's ironic in a minute -- the announcement of the service's launch centered around the Monday Night Football contest between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.
But, the thing is people tend to watch their football on big-screen TVs, not relatively puny computer monitors. The core benefit of TV Everywhere (or Hulu or Netflix or iTunes) is that all of them let you watch TV on demand -- but few sports fans want to watch games after they've happened. People watching scripted TV, however, are more willing to put up with the inconveniences of watching that content online because of the on-demand feature.
In fact, one of the more interesting media consumption behaviors we're seeing this television season centers around the fact that people are watching MNF live -- presumably on the aforementioned big-screen TVs -- and then watching scripted shows that also air on Monday night later on their DVRs. Ratings for shows such as CBS' Hawaii Five-O, NBC's The Event and ABC's Grey's Anatomy are up by a whopping 30 to 40 percent once time-shifted viewing is factored in.
ESPN, on the other hand, has live programming sandwiched between a multitude of sports news -- and neither news nor sports are really much a part of the on-demand behavior that drives people to watch content online. Trust me, there will come a time when watching TV on the Internet gets more interesting, but if you think this is that moment, you're dead wrong.
Related:
- ESPN's Monday Night Football Is Eating the Launch of Broadcast Shows
- Early TV Season Data Shows DVRs Are Changing Idea of Must-See TV
- Lone Star's 60-Second Jump Start Still Left It Last in Ratings Race
- Watch Out TV Execs: More People Are Watching Your Content Online
- Time Warner and Comcast's TV Everywhere Smartly Creates Perception of Free