MUNICH and BERLIN/PRNewswire/ -----According to a new study on Internet TV, there are currently 1,424 online-TV services in Germany, with 194 million daily video hits. The number of people accessing videos has increased by 17% compared to 2011. The mobile use of online TV has also increased: Every fifth video hit occurs via mobile devices.
The online-TV market in Germany is consolidating and gains continuing professionalism, with growing marketing opportunities. In this context, 78% of the videos are produced in-house.
In order to make the online-TV market structure more transparent, Berlin strategy consultant Goldmedia was commissioned by BLM (Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting) to produce "Web TV Monitor 2012", based on a survey of primary data research on all German online-TV providers.
The number of video hits has increased significantly. At live sports events, such as the Olympic Games 2012 in London, new viewing records with live-streaming and catch-up TV could be recorded in the web. For VoD, experts predict a stronger growth compared to linear online TV. Furthermore, the average viewing duration for VoD has risen from 9 minutes (2011) to currently 11 minutes, for live-streaming from 25 to 28 minutes.
Meanwhile, every second online-TV provider has a mobile app or an optimised website for mobile devices. Currently, 18% of the video hits are achieved via tablets and smartphones compared to 11% in 2011.
Hybrid TV via home TV, due to the spread of devices, is also gaining significance. The number of total hits of online-TV services via smart or hybrid TV was 5% in 2012, the providers themselves predict a rise to 16% by 2016.
While 72% of all videos of an online-TV channel were seen via the online-TV website itself in 2011, it is only 67% in 2012. This goes along with the increasing importance of social networks, particularly YouTube and Facebook. Altogether, they generated 25% of the total hits in 2012 (status: beginning ofOctober 2012).
Source: Study of Goldmedia/BLM: "Web TV Monitor 2012"