His and Her Tubes.

According to a Nielsen study, men and women have different preferences for online video:

There is a gender split when it comes to preferences in online video, according to new data from market research group Nielsen Online. While streams of network TV shows have proven to be pretty popular among women, men seem to take more interest in user-generated video sites (such as YouTube). Viewers tend to view the two types of sites at different times, too—data that could help online video advertisers better target their audience …

Nielsen found that women aged 18 to 34 were almost twice as likely as men of the same age group to watch network TV streams, like those offered on NBC.com or Hulu. Nielsen did not provide an explanation, but it may be that men are more likely to get their TV shows in other ways (e.g., via BitTorrent).

When it comes to watching talking cats or “passionate” fans defending Britney Spears, though, the numbers are flipped. Men aged 18 to 34 were over twice as likely to check out user-generated video sites as women, with YouTube being their number one destination…

those watching user-generated video did so most often at night and on the weekends, between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM. On the flipside, those who use streaming network TV sites did so on weekdays between 12 PM and 2 PM, most likely over lunch.

This is reported in “Nielsen: YouTube is from Mars, streaming video is from Venus,” by Jacqui Cheng.

Noteworthy, ethnographically speaking, is how the reported differences between female and male content preferences became a subject of debate among the online audience. Of course, the debate itself captures many of the usual cultural suspects and myths:

Women want authority, and no bs; while men want stuff they ‘build’, that’s customized, funny and juvenile. no wonder women in marriages control the men, because they need to control them – they’re manchilds. (lawrence)

Maybe women are generally more resistant to change, so they’re still watching the same content just on a different medium. (logon2)

Maybe it depends on who has the better taste for quality. Then you have to judge where the quality is. (Tippo)

My guess is that women have a lot less time (esp if they have kids and a career) so they’d rather have someone else filter content for them. (mwoo)

Perhaps women are more rational consumers. Why spend time watching amateur content when you can get higher quality content for free too? Personally, although I use YouTube regularly too, I find the atmosphere – particularly the comments – on sites like YouTube quite juvenile and sexist, so it doesn’t really make me want to stay on there for long. (Alexa)

Also look at all the additional categories that men watch that most women do not:

• Sport clips
  Shock site clips
  Girls shaking their ass
  Porn
  Car clips
  Violence clips
  People doing stupid shit clips
  Video Game clips

while women tend to just watch the repeats of the stuff they saw on TV. (Andrew)

I showed this to a female friend (PhD student in psychology) and she agreed. Her take is that men are more visual, whereas women are more into storylines. Her own behavior also fits the profile. (Peter Antypas)

Men like to watch:

1) porn – much of it user generated…if not original, then clips taken from movies (mainstream and adult)
2) techie material – gadgets, ‘cool’ ideas like potato launcher demos, etc. Women…not so much.
3) fail – men like to see Jackass-esque pain and failure

I am not saying women are not into those things. They just are not as into those things.

For a long time in TV land programmers said that men often channel surfed whereas women often used TV Guide and were more prone to appointment viewing. A number of theories as to why ranging from gender differences in brain function through to the fact that women running both the household, and often their other paid job, had less discretionary time therefore planned more and randomized less. (Brett)

Interesting stuff.

Related posts:

1. Nielsen: YouTube is from Mars, Streaming Video is from Venus. body {background-repeat: no-repeat;}“There is a gender split when it comes...
2. Nielsen’s Report: Television, Internet and Mobile Usage in the U.S. body {background-repeat: no-repeat;}From Nielsen’s report, ‘Television, Internet and Mobile Usage...
3. I Tube, You Tube, Everybody Tubes: Analyzing the World’s Largest User Generated Content Video System. body {background-repeat: no-repeat;}Abstract User Generated Content (UGC) is re-shaping the...
4. Women Watch 41% More Online Videos than 2007. body {background-repeat: no-repeat;}More statistics on online video watching from comScore...
5. Lost in the Web: Does Web Distribution Stimulate or Depress Television Viewing? body {background-repeat: no-repeat;}Abstract In the past few years, YouTube and...

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