Catch Up TV is watched by more women than men, according to a new study. TVNZ a New Zealand based Online TV content provider says that its On Demand television service is mainly being watched by women who need to catch up on the soaps they may have missed when broadcast.

Viewers are watching about 1.5 million shows on TVNZ’s Catch up TV service each month. The broadcaster abandoned attempts to charge for some programmes soon after the service was launched in 2007.

A study of over 600 viewers by the research firm Colmar Brunton revealed that 76% of online viewers were of the female persuasion and 80% were under the age of 40. And most (Nine out of 10) viewed catup tv whilst at home.

Viewers catching up on full episodes or just parts of episodes they had missed accounted for 71% of viewers. A further 7% were watching shows they had already seen before. The remainder said they always watched a particular show online.

TVNZ says the results answered a “niggling concern” that online viewing would cannibalise television audiences and potentially fragment them further. Instead, people used the service to catch up on missed episodes “therefore maintaining a high level of engagement and affinity with the programme”, TVNZ says.

Head of emerging business Jason Paris says TVNZ plans to put first episodes of some upcoming shows online before they are broadcast, to see if that helps generate interest.

Through deals with Disney and Warner Bros, it has had some content that it only offers online and will look for more.

The shows watched the most via the internet in June were Shortland Street, Grey’s Anatomy and Gossip Girl.

Broadcasting expert Peter Thompson, a lecturer at Unitec, says the research findings are not surprising. Women watched more soaps, which could explain the gender divide. An unanswered question that would be of interest to television advertisers was whether people were watching more programmes as a result of visiting TVNZ’s website to download programmes.

TVNZ was not sure of the business model for OnDemand when it launched the service, Mr Thompson says. Attempts to charge viewers for programmes had failed as people were used to downloading content for free.

The monetisation of online audiences remains “quite problematic”, he says. The chief commercial benefit of OnDemand might be that it helped sustain traditional television viewing, as people could catch up on programmes they had missed.

Now some mean spirited individuals may say that women have always watched more TV than them. Fitting it in whilst doing the ‘daily chores’ around the house. Although my wife always says she is way too busy to watch TV during the daytime. Strange then that it is always appears to be on!

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