“Monthly Streamies”, namely those consumers who have tuned to internet broadcasts in the past thirty days should be seen as a core market for US digital device makers. That is the conclusion to be drawn from a new report by Arbitron and Edison Media Research.
The study, entitled
Internet and Multimedia 10: The Emerging Digital Consumer showed that Monthly Streamies are much more interested in digital devices than the general population. This follows on from a previous survey which showed that they were more inclined to pay for online music than the average American (see
Streaming Media Encourages Music Sales, Says Report).
The latest findings show that over a quarter (29%) of Monthly Streamies were “very interested” in plasma or flat panel television sets compared to just 17% of all consumers. Furthermore, 22% of these tech savvy consumers were keen on High Definition Television Sets (HDTV) as against 12% of the wider population.
“Internet broadcasting is rapidly becoming a mass medium with an estimated 103 million people or 44% of the total population having ever used internet audio or video,” said Bill Rose, vice president and general manager of Arbitron Internet Broadcast Services. “Considering the high degree of interest in digital devices exhibited by ‘Streamies’, marketers of consumer electronics would be smart to consider advertising on internet broadcasting to reach and influence their target audience.”
Internet and Multimedia 10: The Emerging Digital Consumer also revealed that the number of Americans who have high-speed broadband internet connections in their homes has increased from 7% two years ago to 18% in January 2003. The average amount of time spent online per week among those with broadband is thirteen hours as opposed to eight hours per week for those who use dial-up. Between TV, radio, newspapers and the internet, those with broadband access spend a greater proportion of their time on the web (27%) compared to those with dial-up connections (17%).
