Some unprecedented insights into exactly who the DVD households are and what is happening with their DVD and VHS activity are now available. This data is reported in the soon to be published third
wave of CENTRIS' "Who's `Bought In' to DVD: A Demographic, Technology and Entertainment Profile of Early DVD Adopters" (based upon a sample of 4,750 DVD households) and a recently published Subscriber
Bulletin on DVD. Key Findings: - Awareness of DVD console players has reached 67% but has shown negligible growth over the past 8 months. Awareness of DVD-ROM registers at 42%, which is on par
with what consoles were at a comparable stage. - Consumers have had their DVD players for an average of 7 months: 13% for more than one year; 21% for 7 months to 1 year; 35% between 4 and 6 months;
and 38% have had their DVD player for 3 months or less. - 10.1% of DVD households report having more than one DVD console player, helping to close the gap between reported installed base and unit
shipments. - DVD households are actually more active with VHS than are all VCR households and all households in general. "CENTRIS(SM) tracks many of the new technologies and formats from day one,
enabling us to accumulate respondents and develop a statistically meaningful sample base from which to analyze activity data and profile ownership status as the market penetration evolves," said
Jerilyn Kessel, co-founder of CENTRIS. After tracking DVD ownership as part of the CENTRIS Core Battery of nearly 100 in-home entertainment, technology and communications inquiries, the DVD section
has been expanding in length to accommodate many of the pertinent measures for manufacturers, producers and content distributors. Awareness has been tracked for DVD since the product's launch in
1997, DVD-ROM more recently, enabling CENTRIS to observe many trends and shifts within the DVD population, as well as DVD's impact on VHS activity. The "Who's `Bought In' to DVD: A Demographic,
Technology and Entertainment Profile of Early DVD Adopters" report will be available in mid July. It provides demographic, technology and content usage profiles for DVD households and various
sub-segments. It focuses heavily on DVD rentals and purchases as well as the dynamics of DVD activity and VHS activity. According to Kessel, "The fact that this is the third wave of a consistent
tracking, with the significant accumulated respondent base and the accompanying extensive Core Battery questions that CENTRIS measures, the study provides for invaluable market insights with a high
level of statistical confidence."
