Move Networks Study Finds Online Viewership Continues to Rise

Move Networks has revealed statistics that show Internet television viewership continues to climb dramatically, spurred by the growing availability of desirable shows and a high-quality, traditional-television-like viewing experience provided by Move Networks. In 2008, Move Networks streamed more than 100 million hours of high-definition content and more than 180 million total hours of content and experienced 100%% in the number of people watching Internet television delivered via Move Networks’ unique adaptive streaming technology (from 25 million unique viewers in 2007 to 55 million unique viewers in 2008).

In 2008, Forrester Research reported that the number of consumers watching video streamed through a browser had doubled since 2007, increasing from 32% a year ago to 63%, and that 90% of regular primetime television-network programming is now available online. According to a recent study by Move Networks, this shift is even more dramatic for the college-age demographic, where 70% have watched television online and 55% watch more than half of their television programming via the Internet.

Move Networks streams 60% of the most popular television shows and 11 of the top 20 primetime TV shows, including

Fringe,

Lost,

Gossip Girls, and

Ugly Betty. The company also streams an average of 600 live events every month, including concerts, political conventions, educational series, and sporting events with Fox Sports, the NFL, and ESPN.

Bill Bradford, chief product officer of Fox Digital Media, says, “Fox.com has seen tremendous growth in our audience since partnering with Move Networks to deliver our programs online. By working with Move Networks, we’re able to deliver the high-quality, television-like viewing experience viewers demand.”

This recent survey of regular Internet television viewers points to the availability of a high-quality, high-definition experience as another factor for the rise in viewership. Move Networks’ adaptive streaming provides an alternative to the other streaming technologies available today that often interrupt the viewing experience with skipping, buffering, and poor audio or video quality. In fact, when presented a side-by-side comparison of streaming video, 85% of survey respondents preferred the viewing experience powered by Move Networks, as compared with Flash streaming of the same shows.

“It all comes down to quality, to watching Internet television that doesn’t need to buffer, doesn’t stall, and is in high-definition,” says Move Networks CEO John Edwards. “There is a growing number of consumers who want to watch their favorite shows where they want and when they want and on a number of different devices. Move Networks provides these on-demand capabilities without sacrificing the high-quality viewing experience that consumers are accustomed to. Viewers expect to have a television experience, and Move Networks delivers a TV-like experience, instant start, no buffering, high-fidelity every time.”

Move Networks will continue to extend its adaptive streaming technology beyond the PC and onto set-top and mobile devices, enabling content owners to serve the same quality of video on all three screens. In addition, Move Networks will work with device manufacturers and content owners to deliver simplified user interfaces for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and Netbooks, allowing consumers to quickly access high-quality Internet television.

“The goal of the company is to allow people to watch Internet television programming everywhere at anytime,” Edwards says. “As we move forward, we’re taking it beyond the laptop to mobile devices, set-top boxes, and even gaming consoles.”

Edwards says the push for embedding the Move software on other devices is coming from both consumer-electronics manufacturers that want to serve up Move-enabled content, as well as from content owners that want to enable time-shifting and place-shifting across multiple devices. Move Networks will showcase examples of the Move Media Player being embedded on CE and mobile devices at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.