According to English research Sarah Pearson, there turns out to be an enormous gap between how people say they watch television and how they actually do. Although it is easier than ever to watch programmes at a time and on a device of one’s choosing, and people expect to be able to do so, nearly all TV is nonetheless watched live on a television set. In British homes, almost 85% of television shows are viewed at the time the broadcasters see fit to air them. It may seem dated, but the image of the family clustered around the living-room set is an accurate depiction of how most people watch television in most countries. In Latin America advertisers have learned to tout grown-up products on children’s channels like Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids, knowing that many parents will be watching with their offspring. Indeed, TV executives believe there is more demand for programmes that the whole family can watch together. Like all social activities, television-watching demands compromise. People may have strong ideas about what they want to watch, but what they really want to do is watch together. So the great majority of them first see “what is on”—that is, what is being broadcast at that moment. Restricted choice makes it easier to agree on what to watch. If nothing appeals, they move on to the programmes stored in a DVR. On the very rare occasions when they find nothing there, they will look for an on-demand video.
This helps explain one of the oddest and most consistent findings of television research: that people seem unaware of their own behaviour. In surveys they almost always underestimate how much television they watch, and greatly overstate the extent to which they watch video in any other form. In particular, they underestimate their consumption of live television.
Efforts to improve the TV-watching experience have often gone wrong because they took people at their word. The past ten years have seen a parade of websites and set-top boxes—Apple TV, Boxee, Joost, Roku—offering a huge range of content and interactive features. All promised to deliver TV the way people (that is, individuals) really want it. Because they failed to take account of the social nature of television, not one has caught on. Efforts to turn TVs into personal e-mail devices and home-shopping outlets have fared no better. “The killer application on television turns out to be television,” says Richard Lindsay-Davies, CEO of the Digital TV Group.
Some technology firms do “get it”, as the bloggers like to say. Yahoo is building internet widgets into the most advanced TV sets that appear as small icons at the bottom of the screen. Click on a weather icon, for example, and a sidebar appears with the latest forecast. The widgets work because they are unobtrusive and do not distract other viewers from watching their programmes.
Other technology outfits are learning to become more like television.
Live television is not just the most popular way of watching video; it also influences the way people watch shows on all devices. The most popular live television programmes tend to be the most heavily recorded and the most watched on computers and mobile devices. Technology is helping hits to attract even bigger audiences.
In the 1999-2000 season the most popular thing on American broadcast TV was “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, a game show. Every Tuesday evening it pulled in 28.5m viewers. But the rest were not far behind. The 10th most popular show that season attracted 63% of “Millionaire’s” audience, or 18m viewers. Even the 100th most popular show still got 30% of the top figure. By the 2008-09 season the also-rans had tumbled. The top show, “American Idol”, had 25.5m viewers. The 10th most popular programme pulled in 55% of its audience and the 100th most popular show just 20%. Relatively, the hits are becoming bigger.
Read more at the Economist.
Saturday, May 15
Friday, May 14
Internet Advertising Keeps Growing
The first quarter of 2010 saw a 7.5 percent increase in Internet advertising revenue over the same period last year, growing to $5.9 billion, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The revenue is a drop from the fourth quarter of 2009, which had $6.26 billion in advertising revenue. For several years, the industry saw steady increases in revenue each quarter, but that ceased at the beginning of 2008. The $5.9 billion is the highest first-quarter level ever for the industry.
Read more at the New York Times.
Read more at the New York Times.
Thursday, May 13
Verizon, Google Developing iPad Rival
Verizon Wireless is working with Google on a tablet computer. Google has said it is working with hardware makers and carriers to create lightweight computers that run its software. As rivals such as Apple Inc. introduce tablets like the iPad, the Internet giant is seeking to spur the adoption of its online software and advertising system through its own partnerships.
The wireless business is still largely about phones. But devices such as tablet computers, netbooks and e-readers are a fast-growing, if tiny, part of carriers' operations.
Consumers are increasingly interested in wireless devices that can surf the Internet or run software applications, and carriers are trying to tap that interest to offset falling revenue from phone calls. Verizon has some catching up to do in the field. AT&T is the carrier for Amazon.com Inc.'s popular Kindle and the new iPad.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal
The wireless business is still largely about phones. But devices such as tablet computers, netbooks and e-readers are a fast-growing, if tiny, part of carriers' operations.
Consumers are increasingly interested in wireless devices that can surf the Internet or run software applications, and carriers are trying to tap that interest to offset falling revenue from phone calls. Verizon has some catching up to do in the field. AT&T is the carrier for Amazon.com Inc.'s popular Kindle and the new iPad.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, May 11
Google Takes on Amazon and Apple in e-Books
Google is expected to launch a digital book-selling unit called Google Editions in late June or July. E-books bought from Google Editions will be accessible from a range of non-Google websites and will be readable on any device that has a web browser (including presumably a Google tablet, if one ever materializes).
The one who stands to lose the most by Google’s entry into the e-book market is Amazon. Apple launched the iPad with an agreement with publishers to allow them to set their own prices for books, based on their existing sales models for hardcover and paperback editions. Google’s arrival on the scene is likely to give even more power to publishers, since they will gain even more leverage over Amazon (and to a lesser extent Apple).
Read more at here.
The one who stands to lose the most by Google’s entry into the e-book market is Amazon. Apple launched the iPad with an agreement with publishers to allow them to set their own prices for books, based on their existing sales models for hardcover and paperback editions. Google’s arrival on the scene is likely to give even more power to publishers, since they will gain even more leverage over Amazon (and to a lesser extent Apple).
Read more at here.
Monday, May 10
Radio Not Threatened by New Media
The vast majority of media buyers believe terrestrial radio is not threatened by new media. That's the finding of a poll by Media Life. They say services like Pandora, internet radio and satellite radio will “skim off some traditional listeners but their appeal is limited” and 26% say “those people inclined to listen to them have already switched over."
But media buyers also believe that these services have already had an impact on radio. 50% believe that internet radio is becoming more popular and that satellite and HD have small but devoted audiences. 11% say the impact of those newer services are forcing terrestrial radio to become more innovative, while 39% agreed with the statement that new services are “still dominated by early adopters, and they are too expensive or narrowly targeted to move into the mainstream anytime soon.”
Revenue for terrestrial radio stations and radio station groups has finally begun to pick up, after nearly a dozen consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Read more at Media Buyer.
But media buyers also believe that these services have already had an impact on radio. 50% believe that internet radio is becoming more popular and that satellite and HD have small but devoted audiences. 11% say the impact of those newer services are forcing terrestrial radio to become more innovative, while 39% agreed with the statement that new services are “still dominated by early adopters, and they are too expensive or narrowly targeted to move into the mainstream anytime soon.”
Revenue for terrestrial radio stations and radio station groups has finally begun to pick up, after nearly a dozen consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Read more at Media Buyer.
Sound Quality Steps Back
The last decade has brought an explosion in dazzling technological advances - except in music. In many ways, the quality of what people hear has taken a step back. To many expert ears, compressed music files produce a crackly, tinnier and thinner sound than music on CDs and certainly on vinyl. And to compete with other songs, tracks are engineered to be much louder as well. In one way, the music business has been the victim of its own technological success: the ease of loading songs onto a computer or an iPod has meant that a generation of fans has happily traded fidelity for portability and convenience.
For decades, starting around the 1950s, high-end stereos were a status symbol. But from 2000 to 2009, Americans reduced their overall spending on home stereo components by more than a third, to roughly $960 million, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group. Spending on portable digital devices during that same period increased more than fiftyfold, to $5.4 billion.
People used to sit and listen to music but the increased portability has altered the way people experience recorded music. It is no longer consumed as an event that you pay attention to. Instead, music is often carried from place to place, played in the background while the consumer does something else — exercising, commuting or cooking dinner.
The songs themselves are usually saved on the digital devices in a compressed format, eliminating some of the sounds and range contained on a CD while allowing more songs to be saved on the device and reducing download times. Last year, the iTunes Store upgraded the standard quality for a song to 256 kilobits per second from 128 kilobits per second, preserving more details and eliminating the worst crackles.
Audio engineers are often enlisted to increase the overall volume of a recording. To achieve an overall louder sound, engineers raise the softer volumes toward peak levels. On a quality stereo system, Mr. Merrill said, the reduced volume range can leave a track sounding distorted. Modern recording has gone overboard on the volume.
Read more at the New York Times.
For decades, starting around the 1950s, high-end stereos were a status symbol. But from 2000 to 2009, Americans reduced their overall spending on home stereo components by more than a third, to roughly $960 million, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group. Spending on portable digital devices during that same period increased more than fiftyfold, to $5.4 billion.
People used to sit and listen to music but the increased portability has altered the way people experience recorded music. It is no longer consumed as an event that you pay attention to. Instead, music is often carried from place to place, played in the background while the consumer does something else — exercising, commuting or cooking dinner.
The songs themselves are usually saved on the digital devices in a compressed format, eliminating some of the sounds and range contained on a CD while allowing more songs to be saved on the device and reducing download times. Last year, the iTunes Store upgraded the standard quality for a song to 256 kilobits per second from 128 kilobits per second, preserving more details and eliminating the worst crackles.
Audio engineers are often enlisted to increase the overall volume of a recording. To achieve an overall louder sound, engineers raise the softer volumes toward peak levels. On a quality stereo system, Mr. Merrill said, the reduced volume range can leave a track sounding distorted. Modern recording has gone overboard on the volume.
Read more at the New York Times.
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