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Entertainment Usage Keep Changing, Growing

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: The world of content and entertainment is changing right before our eyes. People want their entertianment on their big screen, on their PC, on their mobile whatever. The "pro" content providers (the dudes/dudettes) who earn the big $$$$ are really trying to figure out what YOU are doing wrong! Their weekly schedule is good. It's logica. It's what consumers want. Should be they change it enough. But then there's that pesky Internet stuff and suddenly people can get their content when they want...day/night, home/office/round-the-globe. That sorta, kinda sucks. How do you charge big $$$ for advertising when people don't all watch at the same time? Why are folks screaming out their windows? What are they saying? We think we know but find out more on this link.

Entertainment Usage Keep Changing, Growing

“I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' – Howard Beale (Peter Finch) -- Network (1976)

While Howard Beale was a “little” over the edge he did agree with futurist Faith Popcorn on one point…folks seem to want to cocoon in their living rooms and be entertained.

At least that’s what Nielsen Research recently noted:
- Total average time a home TV was on last year was 8:14 (hr, min)
- Individual viewers watching TV dropped one minute to 4:34
- Almost every US household has 1 TV set (99%), 47% have three or more
- More than 20% of US homes have DVRs (Digital Video Recorders)

Sounds great for the networks, stations and pipe-to-the-home providers.

That’s because in the good old days, television ruled.

It was like Howard said, “This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world.”

Now they have competition – serious competition. More screens, more content options. The option that gets VC’s hearts a pumpin right now is mobile video.

Big question is whether it is simply an oddity or people will be satisfied with a diet of content that is about the equivalent of watching a miniature VHS image. Only 5% of

Europeans said they wanted TV on their mobile screens.

According to The Conference Board, 16% of US households watch TV broadcasts online. comScore says these viewers will grow as more and more content is delivered over the iNet.



Figure 1 - Online Viewing – The combination of kids who grew up on the iNet and the rapidly increasing outlets wanting to grab more of the viewing public find online TV as a virgin territory and opportunity. Source – comScore

Our kids tried it for awhile but quickly moved up to watching their content on their notebook computers (HD quality screens).

By 2011 there will be more than 200 M broadband users and 91% will watch content online.


Figure 2 - Steady Growth – As broadband to the home increases, so will the audience for Internet TV. The great thing for content owners and advertisers is that the content can appeal to very specific market sectors …on a global basis. Distribution costs remain negligible to low and demand keeps climbing. Source -- eMarketer

Our son is proud of the fact that he doesn’t have a TV set. Not him boy!

Nope just a notebook computer & 24-in LCD monitor.

Oh yeah…and a gazillion iNet viewing options!

In their insatiable thirst for eyeballs, networks and TV stations have paid attention to the shift and are throwing more content to the web.


Figure 3 - My Eyes, My Eyes – While Tellywood screams and hollers about their content protection, they continue to throw every segment, every title, every piece of story possible onto the Web to entice a larger audience. They’ll figure out how to make money at Web 2.0…later. Source – NY Times

These people live or die by the numbers and if the numbers are moving to Web 2.0 they have to be there to produce dollars for viewership (ad dollars) whether they like it or not.
OR as Diana Christensen said, “The network can’t deal with them directly; they are, after all, wanted criminals.”

And the Internet solves that problem nicely !

For younger folks like our kids who grew up on the iNet…it’s natural.

While YouTube, YahooVideo and the other content sites get all of the ink, most of the stuff they watch is much the same as they could watch on our big screen if they ever came into the living or family room.


Figure 4 - More Than Jokes – For all of the coverage we see on dumb/dumber YouTube, Facebook videos you’d think that all of the Web 2.0 content is mindless stuff. But close analysis of online viewing habits shows that people watch more news/sports as well as personally produced videos. Something researchers find interesting is that folks are more interactive with ads on the Web. Source -- Ipsos

Even though our kids would never admit it, they are actually more involved with and responsive to content online, even when it is the same fare they could have watched on the TV set.

In fact, according to Simmons Research:
- 43% of the online population watch one or more of their favorite TV shows on the iNet
- 13% only watch their TV shows online
- 25% were more engaged in the content
- 18% are more engaged with the ads
- Women, younger consumers have higher levels of online engagement
- 18-54-year-olds rated the iNet as trustworthy as any information source
- Most indicated they are more responsive to online ads

Cable/satellite folks agree with Diane Christensen when it comes to the iNet…“I don't see we have any options, Frank. Let's kill the son-of-a-bitch.”

These people who are only glorified pipelines moving stuff from there to here. While they have traditionally played the same game as the TV people (gross numbers) they’re getting more than a little beat up by Web 2.0 because firms like comScore can track down to specific users, not just households.

Cable and satellite people don’t quite agree Frank Hackett who said, “We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get.”

Not out loud anyway. That’s why cable folks are working together on an ad scheme they call canoe (they’re all in it together) to show better ROI for customer marketing dollars.

As if the production and pipeline people didn’t have enough pressure already, they haven’t missed the fact that increasingly online users are watching more and more user generated video (UGV).

Certainly most of the UGV is mindless, throw-away garbage. But increasingly there are very creative, very professional people out there who are learning they can make a living with their UG content.



Figure 5 - New Generation Producers -- Because high quality camcorders, cheap video ready computers and inexpensive/easy-to-use video production software is so readily available we are seeing a new generation of content (audio/video) writers, editors, producers, directors emerge. The content creators are taking advantage of the cheap Web 2.0 content delivery mechanism. Source -- eMarketer

comScore reported:
- Last December 10 billion online videos were viewed … in the US alone
- Nearly 141 million Americas watched online videos that month
- Online viewers watched an average of 3.4 hours, increase of 34% over 1st of the year
- 1.68 million non-exclusive videos were added to UGV libraries last year
- Market is forecast to grow 52% this year and reach 34 billion views

Somewhere in Tellywood we’re certain that a VP said to his/her underlings exactly what Diane said to her staff…“I want ideas from you people. This is what you're paid for. And by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around, you'd all better read it, or I'll sack the f***ing lot of you. Is that clear?”

Why?

Suddenly people are turning Chris Anderson’s Long Tail on its ear.

Sure they watch some of the stuff Tellywood turns out but increasingly (as when TV first hit the home); they are becoming more selective, more discerning.

They are interested in what might be referred to as non-professional (or non-Tellywood) videos.


Figure 6 - Reversed Long Tail – While Hollywood would like to convince the courts that their declining sales are due solely to online video thieves/viewers, the brutal fact is that Web 2.0 has delivered a world of new content to your monitor. This enables users (consumers) to be more selective in what they capture, what they watch. Source -- Alcatel

They are more intent on viewing what might be called narrowcast content, subjects they can selectively pay for or content services they can subscribe to that mesh with their interest areas.

Ned Beatty’s view of the TV connected world is disintegrating…“There are no nations; there are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars.”

Instead there are a growing number of connected communities that share interests, ideas and content. It is a market that is rapidly orienting itself from Tellywood control to an opportunity for indie producers to directly connect with their audience and be instantly compensated rather than watch distributors and pipeline owners live off their creative efforts.

True none of these content producers will ever achieve a 50 share (that’s TV talk) but they will have complete control over their creative endeavors.

They will also have immediate feedback from their audience... good… bad… indifferent… vindictive!
This type of competition makes it extremely difficult for Tellywood and their pipe suppliers to maintain control over and dictate what content you want to view in the years ahead.



Listen Closely -- All human beings are becoming humanoids. All over the world, not just in America. We're just getting there faster since we're the most advanced country. Source -- MGM

It might…Just might drive them round the bend!!!

Graphics, illustrations available. Contact andy@markencom.com

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Article Tags: cocoon, comscore, content options, digital video recorders, europeans, faith popcorn, figure 1, home providers, home tv, households, howard beale, nielsen, oddity, peter finch, popes, prime ministers, revelation, tv broadcasts online, virgin territory, watching tv



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