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Internet makes watching TV even easier
(Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 27--A growing number of computer users -- particularly college students -- are watching television without the TV.
Lured by convenience and low cost, they are using laptops to view shows increasingly offered online, often free through Web sites.
"You can skip commercials," said Chris Gentes, a sophomore at Oberlin College in Lorain County. "You can rewind to watch your favorite parts back again. It's just generally very convenient."
Sarah Martindell, a senior at Otterbein College, hasn't owned a television for three of her four years at the school. She prefers the efficiency of online viewing.
"You choose what you're going to watch, and you stick with it," said Martindell, 21. "You don't channel-surf. You don't waste time."
TV programs have become the most widely viewed Web content, according to market analysts TNS and the Conference Board, with the number of U.S. households watching shows online doubling to
16 percent from a year ago.
Grant Richter would prefer to have a traditional television and cable access, but the freshman at Ohio State University didn't have a set to bring with him to campus.
Because his Tuesday night chemistry lab conflicts with one of his favorite shows, House, he records it using a $25 antenna that plugs into his laptop.
Not having a television, he said, keeps him more disciplined.
"There are so many distractions in college," said Richter, 18. "TV reruns aren't something I should deal with. I can watch the shows on my own schedule, whenever I have free time."
OSU senior Lindsay Becker, who opted to forgo a television in her apartment to save money on cable bills, is hooked on Web viewing.
"I don't think I'll need a TV for a really long time," said Becker, 22, a fan of The Office and Grey's Anatomy. "I've gotten used to it."
Such reliance on Web viewing, though, is more about one's life stage than personal preference, said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
"My guess is that most of those college students -- when they leave, get their job, get their own space, whatever -- are going to be heavy consumers of high-def televisions," he said.
In essence, Thompson said, computers have simply provided another way for people to watch television.
They won't replace televisions, he said.
The Conference Board study seems to confirm as much: Four out of five who watch television online said it hasn't altered their regular TV viewing.
And recent data from Nielsen Media Research showed no change in the average time a U.S. household devotes to television each day: eight hours, 14 minutes.
Leslie Parsons, 20, has relied on both her television and her computer to watch Heroes and shows she can't get without cable access in her dormitory at Kenyon College in Gambier.
She uses a converter to connect the two, watching shows off Web sites but on the larger TV screen -- so she and others needn't huddle around the computer.
The time she saves, she noted, adds up: She can watch a half-hour show in 21 minutes, an hour-long show in 42.
"My time -- it's that valuable," Parsons said. "I can say, 'OK, I have 40 minutes until my next class. If I skip through the opening credits, I can watch it.' "
keckert@dispatch.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
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