MaxxoMedia Digital Media and Entertainment Trends

It could be that it just takes longer to surf the Web than it does to surf channels, but new Forrester Research suggests that people are now spending as much time on the Internet as they are watching TV–and that time spent on the Internet has jumped 121 percent in the last five years.

So should cable executives jump off the Comcast building in Philadelphia or recycle all their set-tops and build only cable modems? Not really. While the research shows that 33 percent of adults use the Internet to watch video (up from 18 percent in 2007) the amount of time they’re spending in front of their TVs has remained pretty stable. It’s likely, according to the report, that people are just abandoning more traditional media like newspapers and the radio–unless, of course, they’re on the Internet.

The definition of the Mobile Internet Device (MID) may be somewhat nebulous, given the category overlaps multiple products, ranging from some Ultra-Mobile PCs to certain Portable Media Players. However, there’s nothing nebulous about the MID growth opportunity, with global unit shipments expected to expand by nearly a factor of eight from 2007 to 2012. MID is projected to grow eightfold to spur to 416 million units by 2012, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.6% from 53.8 million in 2007, according to iSuppli. While the exact definition of Mobile Internet Device is difficult to nail down, it’s characterizes as devices that have integrated connectivity for Wireless Local Area Network (WLANs), Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) or 3G-or-higher Worldwide Wide Area Networks (WWANs) and has a maximum size display of 8-inches in diagonal dimension, an instant-on function, an always-connectable capability and a full day’s worth of battery life. MID includes devices like UMPCs, netbooks, smart phones, portable navigation devices, e-book readers, portable media/MP3 players and handheld gaming devices, says the research.

From the Center for Media Research

According to surveys through 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online. Generation X (not Y) is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email.
The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 is the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online, and doing more activities online.

Instant messaging, social networking, and blogging have gained ground as communications tools, but email remains the most popular online activity, particularly among older internet users, writes Sydney Jones and Susannah Fox in the report. 74% of internet users age 64 and older send and receive email, making email the most popular online activity for this age group. 89% of teens claimed to use email in 2004. Now, just 73% currently say they use email.

Here’s an article from Slate about a proposed plan by Warner Music Group to fight piracy and in essence give the people what they want – freedom to download whatever they want, DRM free and share it all they want for a flat rate fee every month.

I actually like the idea to a point. I’ve been a Rhapsody subscriber for years and find great value in the subscription model. The underlying question I have in the Warner plan is if the music is freely shared all around the net, how do they account and pay to the artists who work so hard to produce the music in the first place.

Let me know what you think.

From Kenradio.com

The World’s Broadband

Four European Union (EU) nations have the best broadband deployment rates in the world. The Single Telecoms Market Progress Report has shown that Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden saw penetration rates in excess of 30 per cent at the end of last year. Along with the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, these countries saw higher rates than the US in 2007, with some 19 million EU broadband lines added last year.

By Mark Levy CEO of MaxxoMedia

The vision of the digital living room has been around a long time. This is where the living room and Internet collide centered around a screen (namely the TV) and information, video, audio, games, and communications all converge. Over the years, attempts have been made to bring this vision to reality mostly with lukewarm results. Anyone remember WebTV?

At a recent gathering just outside of San Francisco, this vision was discussed. The talks centered around three main topics: 1) What will the interfaces to this digital living room look like? 2) When will this vision become a reality? And 3) How will the various parties, from cable operators and content providers to ad agencies, hardware manufacturers and even consumers make money in this new world?

Busta Rhymes posted a YouTube video giving his thoughts on the impact of digital music and the internet on his career, and he’s not best pleased. “We was able to go into these labels and secure $4 million album checks. That”s not happening no more. The computer caused that.” He also gives his views on YouTube and ringtones during the vid.

By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Surfing the net has become an obsession for many Americans with the majority of U.S. adults feeling they cannot go for a week without going online and one in three giving up friends and sex for the Web.

A survey asked 1,011 American adults how long they would feel OK without going on the Web, to which 15 percent said a just a day or less, 21 percent said a couple of days and another 19 percent said a few days.

Only a fifth of those who took part in an online survey conducted by advertising agency JWT between Sept 7 and 11 said they could go for a week.

Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media. The term “blog” is a portmanteau of the words web and log (Web log). “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
In May 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 71 million blogs.

There are many blog popularity-ranking services on the web, but unfortunately, they all rely on only one piece of data for their rankings. Either link popularity, RSS feeds or some sort of traffic-ranking service. To get a more accurate measurement picture all data from multiple sources need to combine. The top 25 Most Popular Blogs are ranked by a combination of RSS Subscribers from FeedBurner, Inbound Links from Yahoo Site Explore (entire site not including internal pages), Alexa Rank, and Compete and Quantcast U.S. Unique Monthly visitor data. Blogs that are only a part of a non-Blog site are not included (i.e. Google Blogs).

According to Netpop I Play, a new report from Media-Screen, broadband users spend an hour and 40 minutes (48% of their spare time) online in a typical weekday, and more than half of that is spent accessing activities related to entertainment and communication.

Josh Crandall, managing director of Media-Screen, says “Many broadband consumers go online for entertainment, and to talk about entertainment with other fans. Marketers need to leverage that interest…”

Search engines and social networking sites are gaining in popularity, says the report, influencing an equal number of people as magazines and newspapers.  48% of younger users say they learn about new entertainment through community, review and video sharing sites and blogs. Only 25% say they learn about new entertainment through television. 

According to Leichtman Research Group, Inc., the nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired over 2.9 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the first quarter of 2007. The top broadband providers now account for 56.2 million subscribers, with cable companies having over 30.7 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having over 25.4 million subscribers.

Additional broadband findings for the quarter include:

• The top telephone companies added 1.49 million subscribers, 51% of the net broadband additions for the quarter
• The top cable providers had a record tying quarter with about 1.45 million subscribers added
• Telephone companies have added more broadband subscribers than cable providers in each of the last ten quarters, acquiring about 1.86 million more subscribers than cable over that time
• The top cable broadband providers have a 55% share of the market, with a 5.3 million subscriber advantage over the telephone companies