Usage Up & Portals: hot commodity
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, "Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users." On average, nearly 60 million people use search engines daily. This represents a sharp just over this past year where the total number of people using search engines on an average day has jumped from roughly 38 million - an increase of roughly 55%, according to an Emarketer report. The company also recently released results of a study on Internet Portal usage and thanks to robust demand for online advertising, a broadband audience hungry for multimedia applications and an increasingly confident population of online shoppers, portals are hot properties again. Measured by sheer size of audience, Yahoo continues to be the number one site on the Web, according to data from Nielsen NetRatings. MSN, Google and AOL trail Yahoo in terms of unique audience. During the week ended September 4, 2005, nearly half of all Internet users logged on to Yahoo and all of the Big Four portals had an active reach of more than 30% of all Internet users. This audience build up is having impact on many other industries. For example, AOL and Yahoo are the leading online music destinations - and AOL has partnered with iTunes and MusicNet to create a free and paid music service. News is one of the core content areas of the Internet, and as with music (and video), portals have captured the largest audience for news among the online audience. Yahoo! and MSNBC top the list.
Cable Penetration Hits 13-Year LowIn the latest PR move made by the Television Advertising Bureau (TVB) they are blitzing the ad agency community with the message that more American households are receiving subscription TV programming (TVB’s lingo for Cable TV) via an alternate delivery system (ADS) than ever before. MSOs lost 1.4 million subscribers and wired cable's penetration percentage hit a 13-year low, according to a TVB analysis of Nielsen Media Research data for November 2005.Nielsen’s NTI data reflects national ADS penetration to have reached 20.8% in November 2005, up from 19.2% in November 2004. Over the same period, wired cable penetration fell from 66.4% to 64.8% - the last time wired cable was any lower was in February 1992. The number of wired cable subscribers dropped to 71.4 million in November from 72.8 million a year earlier.Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) delivery, the largest component of ADS, is now estimated at 20.2%, up from 18.9% in November 2004. ADS now represent 24.5% of subscription television customers. As a 20-year veteran of the Cable industry, this is certainly not surprising. This is the first small bit of red witnessed by an industry that has been blessed by decades of double-digit growth. What is important is make moves now to integrate this tend into the industries future business model. Satellite penetration will continue to chip away but the biggest threat looms in new distribution technology. As the telcos gain footing and begin to offer more TV services over wireless, phone lines, fiber. ADS penetration will grow at a rockets pace. Although cable Interconnects consolidated DMA’s and helped advertisers make cable a part of their media mix in the first decade of the century. I expect the waters to be murkier in the not too distant future. The MSO’s may not be allowed to own and operate alternate distribution systems but that doesn’t stop their ad sales companies from representing them and keeping “Cable” simple and easy to purchase by advertisers and agencies alike. Review ADS penetration by DMA
To read more from the TVB Click here.
TVs turn into vending machines for programsUSA Today - David Lieberman writes: "Here are two key questions for anyone who wants to run a TV network: Ten years from now, who'll pay for your new shows? And how will potential viewers discover that they exist? The answers got murkier in the past several weeks. Three major networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — took small but important steps away from a business model that has served them for about 50 years but is being stressed by new technology. For the first time, they agreed to let viewers see for a fee current prime-time hits on cable and satellite video-on-demand (VOD) and via Internet download. ..." Link: USA Today.
iTunes gets more Hit TV ShowsAdding to the deal with ABC in October, Apple Computer struck a deal with NBC Universal to sell television shows a la carte on its online iTunes store. More than 300 episodes from NBC prime time, late-night and classic TV shows are now available for 1.99 each. This includes Law & Order, The Tonight Show, The Office, Surface, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and a number of "classic" popular shows of the past. NBC also recently signed a deal to begin selling replays of its most popular shows on an On-Demand basis with DirecTV and Last month announced a deal with Sprint Nextel to make Leno's monologues and sketches available on their mobile services. ABC may have been first to travel this path but NBC followed up with a larger content deal. I have no doubt that we will not see more deals like this soon. Viacom/CBS anyone? More on this topic: Disney, ABC & Apple announce deal, USA Today - ABC affiliates feeling uneasy, SMM Oct Post - TV That you'll want to Pay For? and Reinvent TV's - Steven Jobs stars...
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, "Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users." On average, nearly 60 million people use search engines daily. This represents a sharp just over this past year where the total number of people using search engines on an average day has jumped from roughly 38 million - an increase of roughly 55%, according to an Emarketer report. The company also recently released results of a study on Internet Portal usage and thanks to robust demand for online advertising, a broadband audience hungry for multimedia applications and an increasingly confident population of online shoppers, portals are hot properties again. 
