PINFO

New Tech Making Inroads on Traditional Media

New Tech Making Inroads on Traditional Media
A new study from Arbitron and Edison Media Research released Wednesday shows that new media technologies such as iPods, satellite radio, digital video recorders, and Internet broadcasting, are making inroads on traditional media. According to the study, one in 10 Americans are heavy on-demand media consumers, owning one or more on-demand media devices.

The study found that 25 percent of the population own or use satellite TV; 21 percent have a computer DVD recorder; 19 percent have a portable DVD player; 16 percent own a stand-alone DVD recorder; 10 percent own a high-definition TV set; 10 percent watched video on demand last month; 8 percent own and MP3 player other than an Apple iPod; 6 percent have a TiVo; 6 percent have an iPod; and 3 percent have a handheld wireless email device such as a BlackBerry.

Among the users of the new technologies, 54 percent were most enthusiastic about their TiVo or DVR, followed by HDTV (44 percent), Broadband Internet Access (40 percent), satellite radio (40 percent), iPod (35 percent), satellite TV (31 percent), handheld email devices (27 percent), MP3 players other than iPods (24 percent).

While 18 percent, or one in five Americans prefer to time-shift their TV viewing, 80 percent said they still prefer to watch TV at the regularly scheduled time. Of those that prefer to watch their TV at a different time, 52 percent said they do it to fit it into their schedule, 29 percent cited skipping commercials as the reason, and 19 percent said both.

Devices such as iPods are most popular among younger consumers with 27 percent of 12-17 year-olds owning an iPod, 18 percent of 18-24 year-olds and 20 percent of adults 25-to-34.

But in general, on-demand consumers are likely to be in high-income households of $100,000 or more. Nearly one in three affluent Americans is a heavy on-demand media consumer, compared to one in 10 for the population at large. Those consumers 25-to-44 also account more more than half of the heavy on-demand media consumers.

Now that eight in 10 consumers have access to the Internet from any location, up from half in 1999, the percent of Americans who have listened to audio or watched view on the Internet in the past month has grown to 22 percent or 55 million Americans, up from 10 percent five years ago.

Whereas before Internet broadcast usage tended to be a youth phenomenon, it is now more mainstream, among adults 25-to-54. About 20 million Americans or 8 percent of the population listened to Internet radio last week and about 20 million watched Internet video in the past week. Online broadcast are also more likely to make purchases on the Internet.

The awareness of satellite radio among consumers has grown significantly since 2002, from 8 percent to 54 percent for Sirius Satellite Radio and from 17 percent to 50 percent for XM Satellite Radio.

Those who listen to on-demand audio (iPods, satellite radio, Internet radio) spend 2 hours and 33 minutes listening to traditional radio compared to an average of 2 hours and 48 hours per day, a 15 minute difference.

Based on telephone interviews with 1,855 respondents aged 12 and older in January 2005, this new study, The On Demand Media Consumer, is the 13th study Arbitron and Edison have conducted on the impact of new media on consumer's new and traditional media habits.