• by Aaron Baar , January 4, 2016

As media consumption continued its transition to emerging platforms through 2015, so, too, was readers’ interest when it came to consumer electronics, telecommunications and entertainment stories. 

Of the top 10 stories in those sectors, three followed the rise of streaming media, noting the high churn rates among streaming subscribers, the increase of connected TV devices in U.S. consumers’ homes, and how one of the first players in the market, Roku, stands to benefit further from streaming media’s increased use.

Two of the other top stories, meanwhile, followed developments of old media looking to transition into the new world, focusing on the radio industry’s efforts to educate consumers about the potential for their smartphones to become FM receivers, and the integration of DirecTV as a subsidiary of AT&T (yet was still a purportedly better option than cable). 

In the world of consumer electronics, readers were intrigued by the unprecedented move from technology players such as Intel, Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo and HP coming together to create a $70 million campaign (“PC Does What?”) in an effort to boost the personal computer’s profile in advance of the holiday shopping season. “The category story needs to be told,” Antonio Lucio, CMO at HP, said during the campaign’s launch announcement. “There’s a lot of consumers that don’t know the industry has been listening to them and their requirements for the life that they’re living. Mobility has created a lot of innovation in the category, but what people need to understand is those apps and experiences are created in PCs.”

When it came to telecommunications, Sprint spent much of the year making offer after offer to woo consumers (and keep their current ones from leaving). Among initiatives the company offered included: cutting competitors rates in half (and hold them there for two years); one price, “All-in” billing, and holiday flash giveaways to current subscriber. But the one that caught the most attention among Marketing Daily readers was Sprint’s lure of “free upgrades forever” on iPhones. 

Finally, no recap of entertainment in 2015 would be complete without a mention of the biggest story to close out the year: Star Wars. Amid the marketing hype surrounding the record -breaking movie, a story on EA’s efforts to promote its tie-in “Battlefront” video game (in which players mysteriously disappeared from the real world only to spawn in the virtual one) proved popular among readers.