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  • US Blu-ray and HDTV Households Growing


    Blu-ray Disc player household penetration is up to 12.3 million in the US for the first quarter of 2009, a 71 per cent gain year over year, according to a survey.

    Research firm Centris also found that the number of American households with an HDTV is up to 50.5 million – a gain of 33 per cent from the first quarter of 2008.

    Both satellite and cable industries appear to have matured, however, with satellite subscribers up only slightly to 32 million and cable subscribers mostly unchanged at just less than 63 million.

    Centris’ US Communications and Entertainment report also notes large year over year gains in household penetration for all three next generation gaming systems: 15.2 million for the Nintendo Wii (up 85%), 11.4 million for Xbox 360 (up 28%) and 7 million for PlayStation 3 (up 52%).

    Centris president William Beaumont said that as with its previous research findings, there are several key observable trends as technology developments, marketing programs and the economy take their toll on the industries in which our clients compete.

    "In some areas, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in consumer use of home technology, which flies in the face of what one might expect in this economic landscape," he said.

  • VOD Viewing Jumps 15% in June


    The number of people watching video-on-demand (VOD) programming in the US surged in June – fuelled by rises in the popularity of pay-per-view content and more children taking advantage of free programming, according to Rentrak.

    The increases made June the most-viewed month for video-on-demand this year, delivering more than 589 million transactions.

    According to Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials service, year-to-year comparison for the month of June delivered a 15 per cent increase in overall VOD transactions and a 16 per cent increase in the number of unique set top boxes (STBs) accessing OnDemand.

    Additionally, free-on-demand (FOD) Kids content was up 7 per cent from May figures and delivered its strongest month of the year with more than 106 million transactions.

    June is historically a strong month for transactional-on-demand (TOD) viewing, and TOD continued this trend by delivering the highest number of transactions in a single month so far this year for the category.

  • US Transition to Digital TV Alters Viewing Behavior


    This Friday sees US television going 100 per cent digital, a move that has impacted on over a quarter of households which have had to invest in new TV sets and/or services to prepare for the June 12th changeover.

    However, researchers say that the switch to digital has changed traditional viewing habits.

    David Tice, vice president of Knowledge Networks, said its report, How People Use HDTV 2009, will show that one-third of those with high-definition TV reception always check their HD channels first when channel surfing or checking for a program.

    He said the digital transition is bringing more channels – sometimes dozens more – into nearly one-quarter of US TV households.

    This is vastly expanding the numbers of programs and advertisements they can be exposed to.

    "And our research has shown that having high-definition TV (HDTV) reception changes viewing behavior, prompting many people to check HD channels first when they sit down to watch TV," he said.

    "The result is that the digital transition as a whole seems destined to alter long-standing TV behaviors in many US homes."

    The report will also indicate that those with HDTV reception are more selective about what they watch and more likely to plan viewing in advance. KN will be releasing the new HDTV report in July.

    A separate report from Knowledge Networks has found that 26 per cent of US homes invested in new TV sets and/or services in the past year to prepare for the June 12th changeover.

    The data, collected from February to April this year, shows that among TV households:

    • 18 per cent said they had bought a digital converter to adapt a standard definition set to receive digital signals
    • 8 per cent bought a digital or HDTV set specifically in preparation for the transition
    • 5 per cent started a new subscription to a pay television service such as cable or satellite TV, also specifically in anticipation of the switch to digital

    (There is some overlap among the above groups; the net value is 26 per cent)

    Awareness of the transition has increased to 91 per cent of all TV homes, up from 85 per cent in 2008 and 45 per cent in 2007. All subgroups – whether by householder age, race, ethnicity, or reception type – report awareness over 90 per cent.

    Among the 18 per cent of TV homes that bought a digital converter, most (80 per cent) utilized the government coupon program. In homes that still have only broadcast reception, three times as many (53 per cent) report they bought a digital converter in the past year, and 93 per cent of those used the coupon program.

    The number of sets per home relying on regular broadcast reception averaged 0.48 in the new survey; this is almost two-thirds less compared with KN’s spring 2006 survey, when the average was 1.32.

    The report said that between their awareness of the transition and evidence of adaptation to this new broadcast standard, it is clear Americans have received the message about the transition loud and clear.

  • Bid To Delay US Switch To Digital TV Fails


    A bill intended to delay the US’s transition to digital TV has been defeated in the House of Representatives.

    An estimated 6.5 million Americans are not yet prepared for the switch, which now reverts back to the original date of 17 February.

    The action comes less than two days after the US Senate unanimously voted to move the switch date to 12 June.

    The House blocked the bill, saying postponing the action would only cause confusion for consumers and increase costs for broadcasters.

    It needed two-thirds of the votes of the House under "special rules adopted for the vote," but the result was just 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date.

    From 17 February, all television broadcasters are legally required to shut off analog signals and air only digital programming.

    Viewers using analog TV sets and antennas to receive broadcasts will need to upgrade to a digital TV set or install a converter box to get signals.

    Funds totalling USD $1.34 billion for government-issued vouchers to help consumers pay for digital TV converter boxes has been used up.

    The converter boxes cost between USD $50 and USD $80.

  • Apple Devices Dominate Mobile Wi-Fi Use


    iPhone owners are the single largest source of mobile WiFi data traffic worldwide, particularly in the US and UK, according to AdMob.

    In the US, the Apple handset represents 50.6 per cent of all requests from handhelds of any kind, followed by the iPod touch, which accounts for 28 per cent of the requests.

    The best non-Apple device, Sony’s PSP, only manages 13.1 per cent of this traffic.

    Even further down the scale come the T-Mobile Dash, G1 and various BlackBerries, which each have less than one per cent of WiFi use.

    UK figures are similarly weighted and give the iPhone the lead at 46.1 per cent, followed by the iPod touch at 21.8 per cent and Nokia’s N95 at 16.7 per cent.

    The Apple device is also more than twice as likely to be used on Wi-Fi than other devices and is used 42 per cent of the time on these hotspots in the US rather than EDGE or 3G compared to no more than 10 to 20 per cent for competitors.

    In the UK, this reaches 56 per cent.

    The phone’s presence helped roughly double the use of mobile WiFi to 8 per cent in both countries between October and November.

    Increasing numbers of smartphone users are taking advantage of WiFi to make voice calls over IP networks.

  • Japan Grasps Blu-ray – US Starts To Get Taste


    Blu-ray players bucked generally weak Black Friday sales in the US – helped considerably by average prices dropping to USD $200, according to DisplaySearch.

    Stripping out sales of Sony’s PlayStation 3, the researchers report that US Blu-ray Disc player revenue "more than tripled from a year earlier" during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday .

    Over USD $30 million was generated on sales of 147,000 Blu-ray decks.

    With Sony and Samsung leading the charge by dropping the price of their entry-level machines to below USD $200, overall costs averaged half the $400 price tag of a year ago.

    Coupled with the strong BD player sales, retailers have been reporting sales of HDTVs have been similarly buoyant despite the economic difficulties.

    If the US – finally – appears to be on the cusp of grasping Blu-ray, take a look at the Japanese market.

    BD recorders now account for half of all DVD recorders in the country – up from just 10 per cent last October.

    Even if this phenomenal rise is down to price drops it must still make for cheery year-end reading for the Blu-ray Disc Association.

    Now maybe it can turn its attention to the price of Blu-ray Disc prices.

    While the release of The Dark Knight is expected to boost the high-def format’s disc sales, the general perception is that the movie studios need to cut prices to ensure Blu-ray really does take off.

  • US VoIP Calling Rises By 32%


    It may still not enjoy the popularity found in other parts of the world but there’s no doubt that Internet telephony is rapidly gaining ground among consumers in the US.

    According to responses from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) just released Fall 2008 Survey of the American Consumer, four per cent of respondents reported they had made an online phone call in the last 30 days.

    While this leaves VoIP calling still far from mainstream – especially compared to other Internet-related activities such as emailing – it does represent a year-to-year increase of 32 per cent.

    It also gives online phone calling one of the the biggest year-to-year per cent increases among adult Internet users, along with downloading TV programs and watching online videos.

    E-mail, news gathering and paying bills online continue to be among the most widely used Internet activities by US consumers.

    MRI began measuring Internet activities in 1997 and continually adds new Internet behavior questions to its survey.

    The fall 2008 data include four new Internet activities: sharing photos (done by one in four adults in the last 30 days); sending electronic greeting cards; watching a live TV program online; and uploading or adding video to a Web site.

  • HDTV Now In Over A Third Of US Households


    HDTV penetration has doubled in the past two years with 34 per cent of US households having at least one high definition television (HDTV) set.

    Representing about 40 million households, this figure is set to double again over the next two years, according to consumer research from the Leichtman Research Group.

    The findings also showed that 22 per cent of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months.

    Of these, 43 per cent of this group spent over USD $1,000 on a new TV.

    The results are based on a survey of 1,302 households throughout the US, and are part of a new LRG study, HDTV 2008: Consumer Awareness, Interest and Ownership.

    Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, said while more people than ever before have HDTV sets, educating consumers on HD programming remains an issue.

    The survey found that about 18 per cent of individuals with an HDTV continue think that they are watching HD programming, but are not.

    “About 40 million US households now have at least one HDTV set, and LRG forecasts that this number will double over the next four years,” he said.

    Other findings include:

    • Combined, 38% of HD owners say that replacing an old/broken set or wanting to buy a new TV set was the most important reason for getting their HDTV – compared to 22% citing picture quality, and 7% the quality of HD programming or the number of HD channels
    • 44% with annual household incomes over $50,000 have an HDTV compared to 20% with annual household incomes under $50,000
    • 33% of HDTV owners have more than one HDTV set, and 25% are likely to get another HDTV set in the next year
    • 9% of HD owners say that they switched multi-channel video providers when they purchased their HDTV
    • 42% of HDTV owners say that they were told how to receive HD programming when they purchased their set
    • LRG estimates that about 58% of all HD households are now watching HD programming from a multi-channel video provider – up from 53% last year. 

  • iPhone Ousts Razr As Smartphones Dominate US


    Apple’s iPhone has overtaken Motorola’s Razr to become the best-selling consumer cellphone in the US in the third quarter of 2008.

    Results from research firm NPD show the Razr, which has been the top-selling phone for the last 3 years, now sits second, with RIM’s BlackBerry Curve in third place, followed by two LG phones, which rounded out the top five.

    NPD’s report doesn’t include sales figures, but Apple’s exclusive US carrier partner AT&T said it activated 2.4 million iPhones in Q3. Motorola said it shipped more than 3 million Razrs worldwide in Q3, but didn’t specify its US sales.

    The iPhone’s success is all the more impressive considering it costs upwards of USD $199, while the RAZR has been virtually free with a signed contract for the past few years.

    It’s US achievements follow recent reports that Apple has overtaken RIM as the number two smartphone vendor globally.

    The success of smartphones – four of the top five are high-end handsets – also underlines the trend in the US market towards more powerful, full-featured devices.

    Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD, said: "The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality."

    Overall domestic handset purchases by adult consumers declined 15 per cent year-over-year in Q3 to 32 million units.

    Consumer handset sales revenue fell 10 per cent to USD $2.9 billion, even as the average selling price rose 6 per cent to USD $88.

    NPD consumer cellphone ranking for 3rd Quarter 2008:

    1. Apple iPhone 3G
    2. Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)
    3. RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)
    4. LG Rumor
    5. LG enV2