45% Will Watch Less TV If Strike Continues

Nearly half of Americans say they will watch less television if the writers’ strike continues, according to two polls released in the last week. And one of the polls, by Interpret, said 35 percent have already changed their TV viewing habits as a direct result of the strike. Reruns and reality shows, said respondents, will not suffice.

Meanwhile, Burst Media’s poll found that 25.6 percent of respondents expect to watch more online video as a result of the strike.

Lots more stats after the jump.

Burst Media (poll of adult web users):

• 79.1 percent aware of the writers’ strike
• 44 percent expect to watch less TV if strike continues; 15.4 percent expect to turn the television off
• 28.4 percent expect their television watching habits won’t change
• 39.6 percent expect to entertain themselves more with the Internet more if the strike continues; 25.6 percent say they will probably watch more online video

Interpret (poll of adult TV watchers and web users):

• 94 percent aware of writers’ strike
• 35 percent have already changed TV viewing as a result of the strike, with 27 percent saying they’re watching less network TV
• 13 percent are watching more streaming videos on sites like YouTube, 8 percent are watching more TV shows streamed online, and 4 percent are watching more TV shows downloaded from stores like iTunes
• 46 percent say their TV viewing habits would change if the strike continues; 32 percent said they don’t expect the strike to affect their TV viewing

Strike watchers have long put the negotiating edge in the hands of the wealthy studios, but if their viewers desert them the balance of power could change. It may be hard to measure viewers moving online as show after show runs out of new episodes, but “there’s only a finite amount of original stuff before the networks really run dry,” noted Burst director of marketing Chuck Moran.