Video on Demand Consumption Grows, So Does Rest of "On Demand"

Video-on-demand services offered by cable, satellite and telco TV providers have been a modest success so far. In fact, one might well make the argument that digital video recorders represent the biggest innovation in "on demand" viewing in recent years, though some also would note even that viewing is relatively low, compared to total viewing.

Still, there was a 35 percent increase in VOD transactions in 2010, compared to 2009, according to Rentrak OnDemand Essentials, an audience measurement company.

According to the Leichtman Research Group, DVR penetration rates have reached 54 percent for consumers with households exceeding $75,000 while those with incomes below $30,000 only have a 16 percent penetration rate. See http://www.marketingforecast.com/archives/6941.

Last year, a Nielsen survey revealed that over 30 percent of consumers owned DVRs, but a more recent survey conducted by Comcast says that up to 60 percent of households may be time-shifting their TV viewing.

According to Leichtman analysts, live programming still represents about 80 percent of total viewing. But DVR now represents about 41 percent of that activity.

Online is 17 percent of total TV consumption while other forms of video on demand represent 16 percent of viewing.

But estimates vary. Overall, consumers watch an average of 158.25 minutes of TV per day, according to Nielsen. And they spend just 9:36 minutes watching time shifted TV daily, a 14 percent increase from last year, but still a small amount, according to Nielsen.

On-Demand Viewing Poses a Test for Broadcasters - NYTimes.com

AT&T's Broadband Caps Start Now

AT&T's new broadband data caps take effect April 2, 2011, affecting more than 16 million U.S. broadband users. The new limits include 150 Gigabytes of consumption each month for DSL subscribers and 250 GBytes for UVerse users.

The typical Comcast residential broadband user consumes 2 Gbytes to 4 GBytes of bandwidth per month, Comcast's own studies have shown. See http://ipcarrier.blogspot.com/2010/12/typical-comcast-user-consumes-2-gbytes.html.

So the reason ISPs are worried about the impact of increased online video consumption is that the current level of usage is roughly equivalent to two or three or iTunes-sized movies per month. But everyone expects video consumption to keep growing.

A widespread shift to significant movie viewing online would disrupt usage patterns fairly quickly. But is probably fair to note that a typical consumer is two orders of magnitude (about 100 times) away from having to worry about the current caps.

AT&T's broadband data caps start today

Google, Apple Location Data Benefits Consumers

Google and Apple are facing, and will face more scrutiny, about the protections built into collection of Wi-Fi hostspot location data. A legitimate case can be made about potential abuses, but consumers will benefit directly if anonymous data can be used to enhance GPS and cell site mapping data.

"Information about the location of WiFi networks improves the accuracy of the location-based services, such as Google Maps or driving directions, that Google provides to consumers," Google explained last year in a letter to U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.

"Because GPS and cell tower data can be unreliable or inaccurate, in some cases using the location of Wi-Fi access points can enable a smartphone to pinpoint its own location more quickly and accurately," Google said.

Beyond improved navigation services, there is lots of interest in location-based marketing, promotion and e-commerce applications. Some would not see that as providing a direct consumer benefit, but advertising underwrites much access to free, reduced cost or "no incremental charge" content, for example. Consumers also will benefit from discount offers of other types.

In the future, Google and Apple will have to be more careful and transparent about how they collect such information, and well as how personally-identifiable data can be used. But the data will be directly useful to end users, all that said.

Google emails highlight value of location data - SiliconValley.com

Millennials Most Responsive To Text Ads

GFK MRI has found that the Millennials (born between 1977 and 1994) are 57 percent more likely to recall seeing a text message ad on their mobile device, compared with the average mobile phone user. More importantly, they are 93 percent more likely to have responded to a text ad or made a purchase using text messaging.

Overall, the study found that about 6.2 percent of adults with a mobile phone had looked at an ad sent by SMS. In terms of response, 2.65 percent had used SMS to respond to an ad or make a purchase during the last 30 days.

Millennial Generation Is The Most Responsive To Text Ads

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Mobile Content Ecosystem to Shift?

Mobile operators in emerging markets need to make urgent adjustments to content strategies if they are to adapt to rapid shifts in the market, according to Ovum analysts.

While mobile service providers currently are the dominant force in the emerging markets mobile content space, this is set to change due to strong competition from new platforms such as application stores.

“Unless telcos make rapid changes to their strategy and execution, their dominance is set to be challenged,' says Angel Dobardziev, Ovum analyst.

Some might argue that no matter what telcos do, that will happen anyway, given that the leading application stores are operated by device manufacturers such as Apple, independent providers such as GetJar or operating system providers such as Google.

“We have found that once a consumer has bought a data access plan, they begin to move away from telco services,' says Dobardziev. 'This will ultimately reduce the role of mobile operators to little more than providers of bandwidth.”

Some might argue that Dobardziev already has answered the original question.

Mobile Content Ecosystem to Shift? - Thoughts on Carrier Evolution - Carrier Evolution