According to Rentrak, US Video On Demand (VOD) viewing for the first quarter of this year was up 59% from the same quarter a year before. Viewers reportedly watched 185 million hours of VOD programming. They also say the number of titles available for viewing increased 36% to more than 70,000.
Not surprisingly, free VOD TV shows, offered by an increasing number of cable channels, saw the biggest increase at 50%. Close behind was subscription VOD with a 41% gain. This category includes content offered with premium channels like HBO and Showtime. The smallest gain was in transactional VOD, which is essentially the replacement for traditional Pay-Per-View. The increase for these offerings was a much lower 11%.






