A Comparison Between the Experience of Watching Entertainment TV programs in live TV and on the WEB

This study examines the differences and similarities between the experience of watching TV entertainment programs on live TV and on the Web. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in order to study this issue in detail. Ordinary young people, born within Gen Y era, were addressed in an online questionnaire (N=80), which revealed their everyday media diet and exposure to both media platforms. Furthermore, 15 of the initial respondents participated in in-depth interviews, enabling the investigation of the differences and similarities between the experiences provided by the two platforms. The results clearly showcase that the Web is preferred to the TV platform for watching entertainment programs, offering many valuable features. However, the activity of watching live TV is still very popular among the studied youth as this medium provides numerous positive characteristics that are missing online. Furthermore, based on the study’s outcome, it becomes clear that the Internet and its opportunities for streaming and downloading TV content have enabled a fundamental change in how TV entertainment shows are consumed. Starting from the differences between how people are choosing what to watch on TV and on the Web, analyzing how, where, when and with whom they are actually viewing and last but not least how long and how engaged with the watched programs they are. It is evident that the Web has provided the examined viewers with an experience that is very different from what the TV can offer in today’s Western world and especially in Europe. Moreover, it appears that the two platforms are actually used by the studied sample for two greatly different reasons. While the Web is mostly used for consuming entertainment, the TV is used more for information. Also, the two media platforms appear to be selected with very different motivations and expectations.