• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 28, 2007

Global Findings Show Decline of TV as Primary Media Device

A new IBM online consumer study, a component of the upcoming report "The end of advertising as we know it" planned for the fall, shows that among consumer respondents, 19 percent stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus nine percent of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing. 66 percent reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60 percent who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage.

When it comes to mobile and Internet entertainment, consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community. Despite natural lags among marketers, advertising revenues will follow consumers' habits, concludes the report.

To effectively respond to this power shift, the study sees:

• Advertising agencies going beyond traditional creative roles to become brokers of consumer insights
• Cable companies evolving to home media portals
• roadcasters and publishers racing toward new media formats
• Marketers forced to experiment and make advertising more compelling

Bill Battino, Communications Sector managing partner, IBM Global Business Services, says "Consumers are demonstrating their desire for both wired and wireless access to content... an average of 81 percent of consumers surveyed globally indicated they've watched, or want to watch, PC video, and an average of 42 percent indicated they've watched, or want to watch, mobile video..."

The steady growth of consumer adoption of digital music, video, and other entertainment services -- though markets are still small by comparison to traditional media -- show households are no longer one size fits all:

• 23 percent of respondents reported using a portable music service
• 7 percent reported having a video content subscription for their mobile phones
• 11 percent reported a PC-based music service
• 18 percent reported an online newspaper subscription

Saul Berman, IBM Media & Entertainment Strategy and Change practice leader, said, "The Internet is becoming consumers' primary entertainment source. The TV is increasingly taking a back seat to the cell phone and the personal computer among consumers age 18 to 34. Just as mobile communications have replaced traditional land-lines, cable and satellite TV subscriptions risk a similar fate of being replaced as the primary source of content access."

In the largest digital video recorder market, says the report, 24 percent of U.S. respondents reported owning a DVR in their home and watching at least 50 percent of television programming on replay. 33 percent in the U.S. reported watching more television content than before the DVR.

Additional survey highlights say that:

• More than twice as many U.K. consumers surveyed use video on demand services than own a DVR
• Less than a third of U.K. consumers have changed their overall TV consumption as a result of DVR ownership
• In Australia, despite owning a DVR, most respondents prefer live television or replay less than 25 percent of their programming

Consumers are increasingly contributing to online video or social networking sites:

• 9 percent of German and 7 percent of U.S. respondents claim to have contributed to a user-generated content site
• 26 percent of U.S. respondents reported contributing to a social networking site
• While the numbers were slightly less from other countries like the
• 20 percent from the UK
• 9 percent in Japan
• Australia topped all countries surveyed with 36 percent contributing to social networking sites and nine percent contributing to video content sites.
• An average of 58 percent worldwide, who contributed content, did so for recognition and community, not monetary gain

In the UK, nearly a third of users who watch mobile TV reduced their standard TV set viewing patterns as a result of new mobile device services:

• 18 percent said they reduced "normal" television by a little and another
• eight percent reduced "normal" television by a lot
• four percent substituted television on their regular TV with their new device altogether
• 23 percent of respondents in Germany who had watched mobile video prefer to view user generated content, and 21 percent prefer video trailers or promotions

Read the complete release here, or visit IBM here for the complete study download opportunity.