Couch potatoes haven't moved far from the comfort of their living room to watch TV, despite digital devices designed so they don't have to leave home without it.

Among adults who actively stream and download video content, only 11 percent of their video consumption is via a computer. The overwhelming majority of their content, 75 percent, is viewed on a televisions set, according to Ipsos Insight from MOTION, the company's study of digital video behavior.

Even among 12-24 year olds, who are the heaviest video streamers and video file downloaders, more than 60 percent of their video content is consumed on the telly.

Another study says TV viewers aren't always watching the tube at home, but they are watching rather than surfing.

Some 113 million viewers watch television away from home, up from 86 million people four years ago, according to Total TV Audience Monitor.

T-TAM signed up 4,000 adults to keep track of their viewing in a diary log last October, and it found that 45 percent of outside of home (OOH) TV viewing is at colleges, 27 percent is watched at work (Wonder why we outsource?), 10 percent takes place in bars and restaurants, hotels account for 7 percent of this viewing and vacation homes account for another 5 percent.

The findings are similar to those discovered by Arbitron’s multimedia measurement tool the Portable People Meter, which found that as much as 15 percent of TV viewing takes place outside the home.

The Ipsos study also says while most video is consumed the old fashioned way, viewers are enhancing the experience with new technology.

More than one in four, 27 percent, of households now owns a home theater system with multiple surround sound speakers; 20 percent own a large screen plasma or LCD (liquid crystal display) television; almost 20 percent own a TiVO or other digital video recorder (DVR).

Households average about 16 hours of television per week.

"The TV appears to be well positioned to remain the dominant 'screen' for most video enthusiasts," said Brian Cruikshank, executive vice president of the Ipsos Insight Technology & Communications practice.

It's not just television programming. Households are also investing in video content for their living room viewing pleasure.

Ipsos says 74 percent of households own a DVD player, and the average video library in households now includes almost 50 DVDs.

Also, 71 percent of households subscribe to some form of premium video service -- standard cable, digital cable, or digital satellite broadcast.

What's more, 17 percent have rented DVDs through a mail service, such as Blockbuster or Netflix.

Major television networks are responding to the 11 percent of streamers and downloaders who are less likely to park it in the living room, but only 26 percent of streamers (or 11 percent of the overall U.S. population) have ever viewed full length TV shows digitally.

Furthermore, only 29 percent of downloaders (or 8 percent of the overall U.S. population) have downloaded a full length TV show.

In fact, many of today's streamers and downloaders want to view digital content on their televisions. Forty-three percent of those who have streamed or downloaded video want to burn the digital video files so they can watch it on a standard DVD player or they want to download it right to their "regular" TV system.

"Though many consumers are beginning to try out newer online video acquisition and viewing options, particularly streaming video on their PCs, if they had their choice, they would really rather watch this content in their living room," Cruikshank concluded.

Published: May 31, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the Web site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for "Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home" (Nolo $24.99) and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.