DMR launches ‘MediaBug’ to track the evolution of UK media consumption
Decipher’s media research group DMR has launched MediaBug, a quantitative research tool that offers a unique perspective on the evolution of media consumption in the UK.
The bi-annual tracker is aimed at broadcasters, media agencies, TV platforms, content distributors and ad networks and is an essential tool in understanding how new technologies and services are disrupting established viewing behaviour, and to identify opportunities in distributing content and advertising.
MediaBug’s approach is to identify trade-offs and connections between services, highlighting how changes in behaviour on one platform affect use of another.
Director of Decipher Media Research Dr. Hamish McPharlin said: “While there are a variety of research tools monitoring basic take up of new platforms and devices, MediaBug builds on, and extends, the traditional approach for technology trackers. The element we are looking at is the inter-connectedness of device and service use.”
Drawing on the Decipher Group’s experience around converged media technologies, MediaBug delivers unique insight into how and why UK consumers are engaging content on different devices, and how choices about one device affect use of another.
The bi-annual tracker is based on an online consumer survey of 3,000 UK consumers, and follows a structure and approach that allows unique insights to be drawn from the basic data sets. The first MediaBug output was released last week and includes the following findings:
– In homes that have TV VOD, it is clearly the most preferred way to watch On Demand programming. The rapid expansion of TV VOD services is set to cannibalise VOD use on other devices as consumers move their online VOD viewing onto the main screen in their lives.
– Connection rates of Smart TV’s are growing every year. Initial figures indicated around 40-50% of Smart TV’s were being connected to the Internet, but 2011 and 2012 Smart TV models are achieving around an 85% connection rate.