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"Lost" on the Web: Does Web Distribution Stimulate or Depress Television Viewing?

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  • Joel Waldfogel

Abstract

In the past few years, YouTube and other sites for sharing video files over the Internet have vaulted from obscurity to places of centrality in the media landscape. The files available at YouTube include a mix of user-generated video and clips from network television shows. Networks fear that availability of their clips on YouTube will depress television viewing. But unauthorized clips are also free advertising for television shows. As YouTube has grown quickly, major networks have responded by making their content available at their own sites. This paper examines the effects of authorized and unauthorized web distribution on television viewing between 2005 and 2007 using a survey of Penn students on their tendencies to watch television series on television as well as on the web. The results provide a glimpse of the way young, Internet-connected people use YouTube and related sites. While I find some evidence of substitution of web viewing for conventional television viewing, time spent viewing programming on the web -- 4 hours per week -- far exceeds the reduction in weekly traditional television viewing of about 25 minutes. Overall time spent on network-controlled viewing (television plus network websites) increased by 1.5 hours per week.

Suggested Citation

  • Joel Waldfogel, 2007. ""Lost" on the Web: Does Web Distribution Stimulate or Depress Television Viewing?," NBER Working Papers 13497, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13497
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    1. Bourreau, Marc & Doğan, Pınar & Hong, Sounman, 2015. "Making money by giving it for free: Radiohead’s pre-release strategy for In Rainbows," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 77-93.
    2. Raphaël Suire & Thierry Pénard & Sylvain Dejean, 2010. "La gratuité est-elle une fatalité sur les marchés numériques ? Une étude sur le consentement à payer pour des offres de contenus audiovisuels sur internet," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 194(3), pages 15-32.
    3. Brett Danaher & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2014. "Piracy and Copyright Enforcement Mechanisms," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 25-61.
    4. Krawczyk, Michał & Tyrowicz, Joanna & Kukla-Gryz, Anna & Hardy, Wojciech, 2015. "“Piracy is not theft!” Is it just students who think so?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 32-39.
    5. Wojciech Hardy & Michal Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2015. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the link between "online piracy" and sales of cultural goods," Working Papers 2015-23, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    6. Jo, Jee Hyung & Lee, Jong Hee & Cho, Shin, 2020. "The characteristics of videos on demand for television programs and the determinants of their viewing patterns: Evidence from the Korean IPTV market," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8).
    7. Hardy, Wojciech, 2021. "Displacement from piracy in the American comic book market," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    8. Joel Waldfogel, 2017. "How Digitization Has Created a Golden Age of Music, Movies, Books, and Television," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 195-214, Summer.
    9. Joëlle Farchy & Mathilde Gansemer & Jessica Petrou, 2013. "E-book and book publishing," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse & Christian Handke (ed.), Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy, chapter 31, pages 353-364, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Hailiang Chen & Yu Jeffrey Hu & Michael D. Smith, 2019. "The Impact of E-book Distribution on Print Sales: Analysis of a Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(1), pages 19-31, January.
    11. Sung, Nakil & Kim, Minchang, 2023. "COVID-19 and changes in content usage behavior: The case of South Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    12. Kolko, Jed, 2010. "How broadband changes online and offline behaviors," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 144-152, May.
    13. Richard D. Wang & Cameron D. Miller, 2020. "Complementors' engagement in an ecosystem: A study of publishers' e‐book offerings on Amazon Kindle," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 3-26, January.
    14. George Lisa M, 2008. "The Internet and the Market for Daily Newspapers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-33, July.
    15. Jordi McKenzie, 2023. "The economics of movies (revisited): A survey of recent literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 480-525, April.
    16. Casidy, Riza & Phau, Ian & Lwin, Michael, 2016. "The role of religious leaders on digital piracy attitude and intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 244-252.
    17. Brett Danaher & Samita Dhanasobhon & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2010. "Converting Pirates Without Cannibalizing Purchasers: The Impact of Digital Distribution on Physical Sales and Internet Piracy," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1138-1151, 11-12.
    18. Trevor Roycroft, 2013. "Empirical study of broadband adoption using data from the 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 214-228, April.
    19. Scott Hiller, R., 2016. "Sales displacement and streaming music: Evidence from YouTube," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 16-26.
    20. Brett Danaher & Yan Huang & Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang, 2014. "An Empirical Analysis of Digital Music Bundling Strategies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(6), pages 1413-1433, June.
    21. Sung, Nakil & Kwack, Eunkyoung, 2016. "IPTV's videos on demand for television programs, their usage patterns, and inter-channel relationship in Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1064-1076.
    22. Il-Horn Hann & JooHee Oh, 2017. "Combating Prerelease Piracy: Modeling the Effects of Antipiracy Measures in P2P Networks," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 92-107, February.
    23. Andrea Mangani, 2022. "Come sta l?informazione locale? Le testate locali italiane dopo vent?anni di rivoluzione digitale," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 126-144.
    24. Wojciech Hardy, 2020. "Effects of piracy on the American comic book market and the role of digital formats," IBS Working Papers 01/2020, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    25. Tyrowicz, Joanna & Krawczyk, Michal & Hardy, Wojciech, 2020. "Friends or foes? A meta-analysis of the relationship between “online piracy” and the sales of cultural goods," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

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