Parents Are Gamers Too
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) released a survey of 501 nationally representative parents–conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates–that found 35% of American parents report playing computer and video games. In this group of “gamer parents,” 80% say they play video games with their children and 66% feel that playing games has made their families closer. The typical gamer parent is 37 years old and 47% of this group is made up of women.
These parents are defined as those who play computer and video games but do not solely play desktop card or children’s games. Seventy-three percent of gamer parents say they are regular voters with party affiliation at 36% Democrat and 35% Republican. Eighty-five percent of both gamer and non-gamer parents say that they, not the government, retailers or game publishers, should take most of the responsibility in monitoring children’s exposure to games that may contain content that is not appropriate for minors. Sixty percent of parents agree that it is not the role of government to regulate game sales in an attempt to protect kids from exposure to violent and/or sexual video game content. (source: Entertainment Software Association: www.theESA.com)
Motivating Factors behind Pay TV Service
In a recent report titled “IPTV: Simple Benefits, Not New Technology, Most Effectively Compete against Cable,” JupiterResearch found that 52% of consumers would switch pay TV services if they could get a better price for the same channel selection. The second strongest motivator to switch pay TV services is the ability to choose channels a la carte at 46%. The survey found that there was little interest in high definition programming with only 6% of consumers saying that is a priority. A smaller percentage (3%) is attracted to a wider range of video on demand services.
“While Internet Protocol TV proponents get caught up in the futuristic possibilities of the technology, consumers remain much more levelheaded about what they look for in a TV service,” research director at JupiterResearch and author of the report Joseph Laszlo related. “Competitors looking to deploy IPTV should avoid overwhelming the consumer with Jetson-like ‘TV of the future’ and focus, instead, on delivering real value in terms of TV of the present.” (source: JupiterResearch: www.jupitermedia.com)
Search Engine Popularity
BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Survey recently found that Yahoo! is the overall number one search engine choice for most influential on purchase decisions and Google is number four. The report concludes that media influence and/or engagement are hot topics in today’s ROI driven ad world.
When looking at the influence of Internet advertising on purchase decision ranked by search engine preference, Yahoo! was number one in the apparel/clothing category, MSN was at the top of the list in the Car/Truck category, and for Grocery AOL came in first place. The influence on electronics purchases showed Google is number one followed by Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask Jeeves. (source: Center for Media Research: research@mediapost.com)
Hispanic Americans Embrace Portable and Music-Oriented Technology
In a recent survey of 3,000 U.S. Hispanic households, Forrester Research, Inc., found that Hispanics embrace technology with a preference for portable communication and music devices over personal computers, home theaters and video game systems. More non-Hispanics are online than Hispanics, but those Hispanics who do surf the Web are more likely than other groups to seek entertainment activities such as listening to online radio or downloading music and movies.
When comparing Hispanic Americans and other groups, Forrester found that 41% of Hispanics visit music site compared with 18% of non-Hispanics, 61% of Hispanics use e-mail while 97% of non-Hispanics use that technology, and 23% of Hispanics reported watching Internet video compared with 17% of other American consumers. (source: Forrester Research, Inc.: www.Forrester.com)
Future TV Phone Sales
Strategy Analytics released a report “TV Phones: Integration and Power Improvements Needed to Reach 100 Million Sales” that predicts that TV phone sales revenue will grow from $5 billion in 2006 to more than $30 billion by 2010. The global research and consulting firm adds that enabling technology vendors like Qualcomm, TI, ATI, Philips and STM Microelectronics must help handset vendors with size, design, power, integration and price trade-offs in what they call the post cam-phone mobile era.
The report also notes that early product developments are illustrating broad demand for TV-Out–the handset acts as a pocket server that will have wired connectivity to send content directly to home TV, PVR, and/or Set Top Box for viewing/playback of TV, video and mobile games. They expect 40% of all TV phones that are sold worldwide to have a TV-Out feature in 2010. That number would be up from 10% in 2006. (source: Strategy Analytics: www.strategyanalytics.com)
