Advanced Television

Research: Changing media consumption trends

October 20, 2010

SAY Media, a modern media company, has published the results of a research project aimed at better understanding consumer media consumption and advertising effectiveness. In addition to uncovering key behavioural changes, the study strove to better understand the implications for marketers trying to reach this desirable, growing audience.

Consumers who’ve shifted the majority of their video viewing to non-live video content make up a significant portion of the adult, online population in the US. This desirable consumer group is spending more time online and while they continue to spend their entertainment hours with professional quality video, they expect to watch on their own schedule and to have the option of skipping commercials when they choose.

Twenty per cent of online consumers fall into the ‘On Demander’ segment. All of them watch less live TV than they did one year ago. On Demanders access video through a variety of devices that allows them to time and location shift to meet their busy schedule.
They own an average of 5.4 devices for watching video, including their TV and PC.
Almost half of them subscribe to Netflix.
– 40 per cent own video-enabled mobile devices such as smartphones or iPads.
– Time and device shifting allows this group to consume 30 hours of video each week – compared to the Internet average of 25 hours per week.
– This group is the most turned off by intrusive, repetitive advertising.

Thirteen per cent of online consumers have completely opted out of live television and get their content by streaming across devices, through their DVR or on DVD.
– 90 per cent of this group actually does own a TV.
– This group skews even younger, with 30 per cent falling into the 18 to 24 demographic.
– 41 per cent live in urban areas.
– They consume 21 hours of video content in a typical week – half of which is online.

The report’s authors suggest that it is too early to declare the death of the interruptive ad model, but that the long expected demise is starting to accelerate. “The existence and growth of this desirable cohort of consumers has serious implications for advertisers and for the way that publishers try to reach them. For these audiences, the desire to consume media efficiently has elevated choice and control as the two deciding factors on how they obtain their online content. But as choice and control improve, so does the Off the Gridder’s ability to avoid advertising,” according to SAY Media.

“Getting people to engage in an on-demand world with so much fragmentation is the biggest challenge marketers face today,” said Matt Rosenberg, vice president of Solutions, SAY Media. “We’ve been delivering engagement for years and this study reconfirms that the best way to reach this audience of approximately 56 million is with respectful, content-driven advertising that lets the user be in control.”

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Consumer Behaviour, Content, Research