Television shows once available only on conventional TV in homes at specific days and times are now available via Internet TV in nearly any location, 24 hours a day. However, while the shows may be the same on conventional TV and Internet TV, the motivations and benefits of viewing may be different for each delivery platform. This study employs uses and gratification theory (U&G) to compare audience rationales for watching television shows on conventional TV to watching TV shows on Internet TV.

Research prior to the wide availability of Internet TV (Stafford et al., 2004) summarized reasons for watching television programs as 1) gratifications gained from the content of the program, 2) gratifications gained from the process of obtaining the program, and 3) gratifications gained from the social interactions that come from the consumption of television programming. Using those three gratifications, this study conducted an online survey among users of both conventional and Internet TV. The data indicated that on Internet TV, the process of watching shows to be the leading gratification. On conventional TV, the first motivation is the program content. The results of the survey offer suggestions for the management of Internet and conventional program services.