ABC research supports online adverts
Research from Disney's ABC television network offers further support for the notion that consumers are willing to watch video advertisements on the internet.
ABC, which began offering its top-rated television programmes for download from its website in April, has found that 84 per cent of respondents believed they were getting a "great deal" by being able to watch the programmes for free in exchange for viewing embedded advertisements.
ABC also found that 87 per cent of respondents were able to recall the company that had sponsored the programme they had seen, including AT&T, Cingular, Ford and Procter & Gamble. The survey was conducted in May and June, during which ABC.com served more than 16m videostreams to viewers.
The research is likely to influence the debate about proper business models for television as it moves online and onto a host of digital devices. ABC, along with other broadcasters, has experimented with various models, including selling episodes of their programmes without advertisements through Apple's iTunes store and other digital outlets.
However, the latest ABC research confirms similar findings from other media groups that consumers were embracing an advertising-supported model. "People would rather sit through ads than pay 99 cents or $1.99 [per episode]," Les Moonves, CBS's chief executive, said in June.
ABC's findings could bode well for another competitor, Viacom's MTV Networks, which yesterday announced an ambitious plan to supply video clips of its programming to hundreds of websites and blogs affiliated with Google. The clips will carry embedded advertisements, whose revenue the companies will share.
ABC's research also showed that the majority of viewers had watched programmes online within 24 hours of their TV broadcast. The top reason that they gave for turning to the web was because they had missed the TV broadcast.
That finding tends to back the company's argument to its affiliate stations that online viewing does not cannibalise the traditional TV audience, but supplements it.
调查：消费者愿看网上视频广告
沃尔特迪斯尼(Walt Disney)旗下美国广播公司(ABC)电视网的研究进一步证明，消费者愿意在网上观看视频广告。
美国广播公司4月份开始在其网站上提供顶级电视节目下载服务。该公司发现，84%的受访者认为，能够以观看植入式广告作为交换条件免费观看电视节目，对他们而言“非常划算”。
美国广播公司同时发现，87%的受访者能够回忆起为他们观看过的节目提供赞助的公司名称，其中包括美国电话电报公司(AT&T)、Cingular、福特(Ford)和宝洁(Procter & Gamble)。此项调查是在5月份和6月份进行的，在此期间，ABC.com为用户提供了超过1600万段视频节目。
随着电视节目可以在网络和多种数码设备上播放，围绕电视业务合理模式出现了各种争论，此项研究可能这些争论产生影响。与其它广播公司一样，美国广播公司也尝试了多种模式，包括将不含广告的电视节目片断通过苹果公司iTunes网上商店和其它数码商店进行销售等。
然而，美国广播公司的最新研究证实了其它传媒集团的类似结论：消费者乐于接受一种广告支持的模式。
