By James Hibberd
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -
During the recent
Hollywood writers strike, TV fans barely left the couch.
According to a new study, strike-era viewers managed to
increase the amount of time they spent watching DVDs, playing
video games and surfing the Internet while watching as much
television programming as before.
The findings are from a just-released Nielsen research
study assessing the impact of the 100-day strike, which was
settled almost two months ago.
The report concluded that the industrywide work stoppage
lowered the average primetime total viewer ratings on the four
major broadcast networks by 6.1 percent from the beginning of
the walkoff in November to its conclusion in mid-February.
(Data combine both live viewings as well as in the following
seven days on digital recorders)
Yet when Nielsen examined the number of households using
television (including watching daytime, video-on-demand, cable
and other sources), the numbers showed a 0.5 percent increase
during the strike.
So viewers might have watched fewer primetime hits, but
they didn't use their television any less.
During the strike period, viewers also found time to watch
even more DVDs (+17.4 percent), play more video games (+37.5
percent) and spend more time online than last year.
Although broadcast viewers did flee to cable, their impact
was relatively modest. Ad-supported basic cable viewing
increased 1.4 percent during the strike.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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