IS THE MEDIA CUP HALF SEEN OR HALF HEARD
THE GRAND-DADDY OF MULTI MEDIA STUDIES
THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT FROM US
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD
IT’S EVERYWHERE; IT’S EVERYWHERE
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
IS THE MEDIA CUP HALF SEEN OR HALF HEARD. That seems to be the question raised by the latest research from MRI (Media Research and Intelligence). As opposed to so many reports on people’s multi-tasking media habits, the MRI study says “much media consumption occurs individually.” The study emphasizes that half of at-home media usage is exclusive – meaning that the consumer is using only that medium. For example: newspaper reading (55%), Internet usage (53.8%), magazine reading (53.6%) and TV viewing (49.4%). Regular readers of MfM will remember an earlier BIGresearch report on simultaneous media usage which emphasized that “the only way for people to keep up with the deluge of media options is to multi-task with other media.” That report released earlier this year said simultaneous media consumption was up from its previous year’s report by anywhere from 1% to 35% depending on the medium. How do you reconcile the two reports? The answer is I can’t, or at least not fully. For example: The MRI study says 15.3% of at-home newspaper reading is done while watching TV. The BIGresearch study says the figure is double that with 30% of the consumers saying they watch TV while reading the newspaper. Another example: The MRI study says the number one non-media activity that consumers engage in while using media is chores. The BIGresearch report says the number one non-media activity engaged in while using media is eating.
That doesn’t mean the reports are completely contradictory. For example, both reports point to television as the dominant medium. The BIGresearch study says that when more than one medium is used in the home, it is typically television and another medium, a fact echoed by the MRI study; The MRI study also goes on to say that television is used by four out of five people (83.6%) followed by radio (63.2%) newspapers (55.6%), the Internet (52.6%) and magazines (37.6%). And both reports raise questions about television’s influence. The BIGresearch report says its study shows TV’s influence on consumers to purchase products has declined while new media options have increased. The MRI report says the percentage of people saying they were “very focused” when using television is significantly lower than for all other medium, except radio. Only a third (34.7%) of TV viewers report being “very focused” which is double radio (16.5%) but lower than magazines (41.8%), newspapers (50%) and especially the Internet (54.6%).
Both reports have some interesting, although somewhat expected, insights. For example: The MRI study shows a dramatic drop in exclusive media usage for Television and the Internet in out-of-home usage. The Internet drops from a half (53.8%) in usage in home to a fifth (20.4%) out of home (mainly because it is used in conjunction with work – remember the word exclusive.) Television drops to a third (32.6%) from a half (49.4%) while magazines drop only four points to 49% and newspaper exclusive use remains the same in home and out of home at 55%. Only radio increases slight (from 28.6% to 34.6%). The BIGresearch report shows channel surfing as the #1 activity during TV commercials (41.2%) followed by talking with others by phone or in the room (33.5%) and my favorite – mentally tuning out (30.2%).
THE GRAND-DADDY OF MULTI-MEDIA STUDIES. Regular and long-time readers of MfM will remember the Middletown Media Studies by Ball State University which in 2004 raised the consciousness of just how pervasive multi-media use is. That report said that if you summed up all media use in a day, it came to a staggering 15.4 hours a day, but that if you took into account multi-media use it dropped, but to a still huge average of 11.7 hours a day. The ‘most active’ person spent more than 17 hours a day – virtually every waking moment – with the media; the ‘least active’ person spent a still sizable 5.25 hours a day with the media. That study showed that people spend double the amount of time with media than they think they do. That may be because the Middletown study used observational data instead of either diary or telephone surveys.
THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT FROM US. So said F. Scott Fitzgerald. To which Ernest Hemingway is purported to have said, “yes, they have more money.” Well, depending on how you look at it, they’re both right, according to a report by Ipsos/ Mendelsohn dubbed the Affluent Survey. According to the study, there are 23.3 Million households with an annual income of more than $100,000; 2.5 Million with an annual income of more than $250,000; and 2.67 Million households with liquid assets of more than $1 Million. Shock of shocks, the study reports that the affluent fly more frequently and stay at hotels more often, and when they vacation they are more likely to go to Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard or Maui. And when they play sports, they’re more likely to go sailing, play tennis, go snow skiing or play golf. (I suspect they don’t take part in a lot of pick-up basketball games, but that wasn’t included.) But, semi-serious shock of shocks, when they shop, they are more likely to go to Target (84.9%) or Wal-Mart (80.2%), than Saks Fifth Avenue (12.6%) or Nieman Marcus (13.5%).
When it comes to media, the use of television and radio by the affluent has declined steadily over the past five years while magazine readership has held steady. They watch the four networks in greater numbers (an average of 32 Million of them) than PBS (an average of 18 Million); more will watch CNN (26 Million) than Fox (17 Million). Their favorite non-news cable network (as I read the numbers) is Discovery (with 25.4 Million affluent viewers), followed by ESPN (22 Million), The Weather Channel and A&E (with roughly 21 Million each) and The Food Network (20 Million). The most popular magazine is…. drum roll please… People magazine (with 7.1 Million affluent heads of household), followed by National Geographic/ Traveler (6.8 Million), followed by (the one surprise) Pace Airline Media (5.6 Million) (and, no, I’ve never heard of it.). And, as has been reported elsewhere, the affluent spend more time online (an average of 23.4 hours a week) and make greater use of cell phones – 40% use hand-held devices to access the Internet and 10% make Internet purchases using their mobiles.
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD: Or possibly I could have headlined this, the giant slayer. The little known India-based company Zoho has launched a suite of services to take on behemoths Google and Microsoft – everything from e-mail to word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations to project management, database applications and customer relationship management. All online in a cloud computing environment that reviewers (such as websites WebGuild.org and ReadWriteWeb.com) have given good marks. Such good marks, in fact, that General Electric (a behemoth in its own right) has picked Zoho as its strategic partner for its 400,000 desktops. Zoho was the winner of webguild’s best web 2.0 apps content, and website readwriteweb (interestingly and coincidentally) used the same headline I did in referring to Zoho. And here’s the kicker: As if the fact that Zoho is competing successfully with Google et al is not enough, Zoho’s team of developers are straight out of school – NOT College… School. Zoho pays the young developers the equivalent of one year of college. At the end of that year, many stay on; some actually go on to college.
IT’S EVERYWHERE; IT’S EVERYWHERE. If radio series crime fighter Chickenman were around today, that’s what he would be saying about the blogosphere. According to the annual state of the blogosphere report by Technorati, blogs attract 77 Million unique visitors in the U.S. alone. That’s more than either MySpace (75 Million) or Facebook (41 Million), and that is out of a total of nearly 189 Million in the total Internet audience. Since 2002, Technorati has indexed 133 Million blogs. Of that number, 7.4 Million blogs were posted in the last 120 days, 1.5 Million blogs in the last week, and 900,000 blogs in the past 24 hours. The company tracks blogs in 81 languages across 66 countries and six continents. North America accounts for nearly half (48%) of all bloggers, followed by Europe (27%) and Asia (13%). South America only accounts for 7% while little Australia accounts for 3% and Africa has one percent. Despite the come-and-go nature of blogs, the average blogger has been at it an average of three years. Blogs are profitable, too, with most people investing $1,800 and the mean annual revenue hitting $6,000. (So, what’s wrong with my blog, I wonder.) Three out of four U.S. bloggers are college graduates with nearly half (42%) having attended graduate school. Two-thirds are male with half between the ages of 18 and 34. And although the highest concentration of bloggers is in the San Francisco Bay area, followed by New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, the folks at Technorati say the majority of bloggers do NOT live near the largest metropolitan areas.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.
Showing posts with label broadband television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label broadband television. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Message From Michael -- February 25, 2008
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER ONE – DTV TRANSITION
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER TWO – NET NEUTRALITY
I DON’T WANT MY MTV
FACTOID OF THE WEEK -- CLICKERS
COCKTAIL CHATTER – GOOGLE LOGO
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER ONE – DTV TRANSITION: With one year left before the nationwide transition to DTV (February 17, 2009), a report by market research firm Centris claiming that “Millions” of people may be “left in the dark” with the digital transition has caused a furor. In brief their analysis goes like this: there are 40 Million households currently receiving over-the-air analog signals. That represents 117 Million sets that are – in the curious wording of the news release – “unconnected from cable or satellite video networks.” Using the website Antennaweb.org which helps consumers map out the best antenna to use, the folks at Centris found several “gaps” in coverage outside of a 35 mile range. (Antennaweb, by the way, is a joint venture of the Consumer Electronics Association and the National Association of Broadcasters). To make it worse, say the folks at Centris, the antennaweb.org survey is based on outside antenna, but three quarters (75%) of those 40 Million over-the-air households rely on less sensitive set-top antennas instead of outdoor antennas.
The problem with the analysis, according to the Association for Maximum Service Television is that Centris relied on a “paper analysis” of the antennaweb.org data. The MSTV group which was formed in 1956 but which bills itself as “the leading advocate for advanced over-the-air digital television in the United States” for the past decade says the Centris study “mischaracterized” information and says consumers are already receiving good signals 30 miles and beyond. A commentary by Doug Lung on the website TVTechnology.com also says the Centris data is a “misinterpretation” of the FCC data on signal propagation and that the issue of multipath interference is “misleading.” But even he says antennas have been overlooked in the DTV discussions and that outside the strong signal areas (that 35 mile range), antenna selection will be important. One last point: the Centris study makes the point that considering nearly half (45%) of the audience doesn’t even know DTV transition was taking place, any gaps in coverage will only add to the confusion.
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER TWO – NET NEUTRALITY: Two years after first talking about it, a bill (named in Washington jargon – the Internet Freedom Preservation Act) has been re-introduced into Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission more control over the Internet. And tomorrow, the FCC holds hearings in Boston on Net Neutrality and network management. On one side are the giant telephone and cable companies (AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon) who argue that the increasing online video usage makes some kind of ‘capacity-based’ pricing system necessary to keep the lines open. On the other side are consumer groups (with names like savetheinternet.com and openinternetcoalition.com) who argue that such a pricing system would set up an equivalent to the cable television pricing in which “choices are limited and the platform is closed.” And before you start thinking the consumer groups are out-gunned, also on their side are such behemoths as eBay, Amazon and Google whose representatives argue they wouldn’t have been able to start-up if the pricing system existed. The new bill was spurred, in part, by cable company Comcast’s admission that it had slowed traffic on its lines. Meanwhile, sitting on the side lines are peer-to-peer file sharing operations such as BitTorrent whose software has been downloaded 160 Million times. The original vote to give the FCC more control was defeated by a 269-152 vote.
I DON’T WANT MY MTV: No, instead, I want I Love Lucy, Battlestar Galactica, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver and F Troop. At least that’s what two of the broadcast networks are betting. In separate announcements, NBC and CBS announced they will begin streaming “classic” TV series on the Internet. CBS is offering the shows through its ‘audience network’ which includes video providers Joost and Veoh while NBC will be offering the shows through its ‘entertainment sites’ including Hulu and sites such as SciFi.com, ChillerTV.com and Sleuthchannel.com. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention AOL’s In2TV website which has been operational for some time now. As a side note, a whole new network specializing in classic television series has sprung up and is being carried on many affiliates’ secondary digital channels. The network, a subsidiary of Little Rock, Arkansas, based Equity Media Holdings focuses on shows from the 50’s to the 80’s. And as a foot note to the side note, there is a website TVHistory.TV which recounts the history of television and television sets starting from 1935.
FACTOID OF THE WEEK: Another new feature for MfM. Maybe. Anyway… A study by comScore found that less than one-fifth of the Online population accounts for four-fifths of all the Internet ad clicks. The study commissioned by Starcom and AOL’s Tacoda found that six percent of the online population were clicking on ads four and five times a month, accounting for half (50%) of ALL clicks. Another ten percent of the Online population click two or three times and thus account for 30% of ALL clicks. For those non-math majors among you, that’s 16% of the online population accounting for 80% of the clicks; or looking at it from the other side, three quarters (74%) of the online population account for only 20% of the online clicks.
All right, one more. BrandWeek reports that if you think the number of coupons stuffed into your Sunday newspaper has grown… you’re right. Spending on FSI’s (Free Standing Inserts) has more than doubled from $413 Million in 2006 to $904 Million in 2007, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus.
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Would-be fashion photographers can practice their skills through a website, directdaniella.com, co-created by Taco Bell and Sports Illustrated which allows them to take snapshots and even direct poses of Brazilian beauty and SI Swimsuit model Daniella Sarahyba using their web browser. Aside from Fidel Castro stepping down, the other big news coming out of Cuba is that the Chinese state television network has launched three channels in the island nation, as a reciprocal to the Cuban television shows airing in China. The typeface in the Google logo is Adobe Garamond. Definitely a factoid you can drop at that next cocktail party. Actually, the whole issue of the logo design was the subject of a Wired article profiling the graphic artist Ruth Kedar who met the two founders at Stanford University. Kedar who admits she never imagined the logo would be as ubiquitous as it is, said she brought some ‘playfulness’ to the design by “bringing primary colors and two dimensionality to the O’s… to visually imply that something goes on ad infinitum.”
And lastly for those of you who stayed up and watched the Academy Awards, well, I don’t have anything to say, except that I missed most of the movies. But you have until March 28th to submit for the new category of broadband television in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 60th Primetime Emmy awards. In its announcement, the academy says, “the future of television is awaiting you.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER TWO – NET NEUTRALITY
I DON’T WANT MY MTV
FACTOID OF THE WEEK -- CLICKERS
COCKTAIL CHATTER – GOOGLE LOGO
We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael. But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER ONE – DTV TRANSITION: With one year left before the nationwide transition to DTV (February 17, 2009), a report by market research firm Centris claiming that “Millions” of people may be “left in the dark” with the digital transition has caused a furor. In brief their analysis goes like this: there are 40 Million households currently receiving over-the-air analog signals. That represents 117 Million sets that are – in the curious wording of the news release – “unconnected from cable or satellite video networks.” Using the website Antennaweb.org which helps consumers map out the best antenna to use, the folks at Centris found several “gaps” in coverage outside of a 35 mile range. (Antennaweb, by the way, is a joint venture of the Consumer Electronics Association and the National Association of Broadcasters). To make it worse, say the folks at Centris, the antennaweb.org survey is based on outside antenna, but three quarters (75%) of those 40 Million over-the-air households rely on less sensitive set-top antennas instead of outdoor antennas.
The problem with the analysis, according to the Association for Maximum Service Television is that Centris relied on a “paper analysis” of the antennaweb.org data. The MSTV group which was formed in 1956 but which bills itself as “the leading advocate for advanced over-the-air digital television in the United States” for the past decade says the Centris study “mischaracterized” information and says consumers are already receiving good signals 30 miles and beyond. A commentary by Doug Lung on the website TVTechnology.com also says the Centris data is a “misinterpretation” of the FCC data on signal propagation and that the issue of multipath interference is “misleading.” But even he says antennas have been overlooked in the DTV discussions and that outside the strong signal areas (that 35 mile range), antenna selection will be important. One last point: the Centris study makes the point that considering nearly half (45%) of the audience doesn’t even know DTV transition was taking place, any gaps in coverage will only add to the confusion.
BATTLE ROYAL NUMBER TWO – NET NEUTRALITY: Two years after first talking about it, a bill (named in Washington jargon – the Internet Freedom Preservation Act) has been re-introduced into Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission more control over the Internet. And tomorrow, the FCC holds hearings in Boston on Net Neutrality and network management. On one side are the giant telephone and cable companies (AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon) who argue that the increasing online video usage makes some kind of ‘capacity-based’ pricing system necessary to keep the lines open. On the other side are consumer groups (with names like savetheinternet.com and openinternetcoalition.com) who argue that such a pricing system would set up an equivalent to the cable television pricing in which “choices are limited and the platform is closed.” And before you start thinking the consumer groups are out-gunned, also on their side are such behemoths as eBay, Amazon and Google whose representatives argue they wouldn’t have been able to start-up if the pricing system existed. The new bill was spurred, in part, by cable company Comcast’s admission that it had slowed traffic on its lines. Meanwhile, sitting on the side lines are peer-to-peer file sharing operations such as BitTorrent whose software has been downloaded 160 Million times. The original vote to give the FCC more control was defeated by a 269-152 vote.
I DON’T WANT MY MTV: No, instead, I want I Love Lucy, Battlestar Galactica, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver and F Troop. At least that’s what two of the broadcast networks are betting. In separate announcements, NBC and CBS announced they will begin streaming “classic” TV series on the Internet. CBS is offering the shows through its ‘audience network’ which includes video providers Joost and Veoh while NBC will be offering the shows through its ‘entertainment sites’ including Hulu and sites such as SciFi.com, ChillerTV.com and Sleuthchannel.com. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention AOL’s In2TV website which has been operational for some time now. As a side note, a whole new network specializing in classic television series has sprung up and is being carried on many affiliates’ secondary digital channels. The network, a subsidiary of Little Rock, Arkansas, based Equity Media Holdings focuses on shows from the 50’s to the 80’s. And as a foot note to the side note, there is a website TVHistory.TV which recounts the history of television and television sets starting from 1935.
FACTOID OF THE WEEK: Another new feature for MfM. Maybe. Anyway… A study by comScore found that less than one-fifth of the Online population accounts for four-fifths of all the Internet ad clicks. The study commissioned by Starcom and AOL’s Tacoda found that six percent of the online population were clicking on ads four and five times a month, accounting for half (50%) of ALL clicks. Another ten percent of the Online population click two or three times and thus account for 30% of ALL clicks. For those non-math majors among you, that’s 16% of the online population accounting for 80% of the clicks; or looking at it from the other side, three quarters (74%) of the online population account for only 20% of the online clicks.
All right, one more. BrandWeek reports that if you think the number of coupons stuffed into your Sunday newspaper has grown… you’re right. Spending on FSI’s (Free Standing Inserts) has more than doubled from $413 Million in 2006 to $904 Million in 2007, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus.
COCKTAIL CHATTER: Would-be fashion photographers can practice their skills through a website, directdaniella.com, co-created by Taco Bell and Sports Illustrated which allows them to take snapshots and even direct poses of Brazilian beauty and SI Swimsuit model Daniella Sarahyba using their web browser. Aside from Fidel Castro stepping down, the other big news coming out of Cuba is that the Chinese state television network has launched three channels in the island nation, as a reciprocal to the Cuban television shows airing in China. The typeface in the Google logo is Adobe Garamond. Definitely a factoid you can drop at that next cocktail party. Actually, the whole issue of the logo design was the subject of a Wired article profiling the graphic artist Ruth Kedar who met the two founders at Stanford University. Kedar who admits she never imagined the logo would be as ubiquitous as it is, said she brought some ‘playfulness’ to the design by “bringing primary colors and two dimensionality to the O’s… to visually imply that something goes on ad infinitum.”
And lastly for those of you who stayed up and watched the Academy Awards, well, I don’t have anything to say, except that I missed most of the movies. But you have until March 28th to submit for the new category of broadband television in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 60th Primetime Emmy awards. In its announcement, the academy says, “the future of television is awaiting you.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com. You can reach me directly at my website MediaConsultant.tv.
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