Video-game consoles aren’t just for gaming anymore. Increasingly, people are using their Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii devices to stream movies and TV shows, according to a survey released last week by the Nielsen Co. Because all three consoles readily connect to the Internet, viewers can use them to access video-on-demand services such as Netflix and YouTube to watch on their TV screens rather than on computers.
That seems to be what consumers are doing. Streaming video accounted for 14 percent of the average time spent using Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in October, up from 10 percent last year, according to a Nielsen survey of 3,000 people. The shift was even more dramatic for Nintendo Co.’s Wii, which jumped to 33 percent from 20 percent. Los Angeles Times
