in the 85 metro markets surveyed by The Media Audit, the percentage of adults who spend at least an hour a day on the Internet is significantly greater than the percentage of adults who spend an hour a day with the print edition of a daily newspaper. In 2003, through the first 54 markets surveyed, 26.2 percent of the adults spent seven or more hours per week on the Internet.

Strategy Analytics reports that sales of digital television set-top boxes will grow worldwide by 28% in 2003 totaling 36 million units, and a stronger year in 2004 for digital TV set-top boxes, with a growth in unit sales of 39%.

According to the Arbitron report, AOL Radio@Network and LAUNCH were the top-ranked commercial Internet Broadcasters. AOL reported problems with their server data for the week of December 15, resulting in ratings that are lower than prior weeks. MUSICMATCH was the top-ranked non-commercial Internet Broadcaster. The Adsertion Network was the top-ranked Sales Network. Due to a switch in Content Delivery Networks, tuning for The Adsertion Network is lower for the week.

Horowitz Associates, Inc. has recently released their latest consumer research study, Women's World III: Women as Media Consumers and Household Decision Makers. While the study features the importance of understanding how women and men differ when it comes to attitudes and perceptions of digital and interactive services (read: cable and broadband), of perhaps more importance are the psychographics.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) released its 2004 forecast, predicting that GAFS sales (general merchandise stores, apparel stores, furniture and home furnishings stores, electronics and appliances stores, and sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores) will increase 5.0 percent from last year. According to its Retail Sales Outlook Report, NRF cites gains in consumer income and low inflation as major contributors to growth in 2004.

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that more than 11 million home surfers flocked to health, fitness and nutrition sites during the week ending January 4, as Americans turned to the Web to help kick off a healthy new year. The top sites in the category experienced triple and double-digit growth.

This report from the Pew Internet and American Project, takes an inventory of the communications gadgets and services that American use and examine the variations within the population of technology users. This elite comprises three distinct sub-groups of Americans who are the most voracious consumers of information goods and services in the United States.

The latest Horowitz Associates study on the U.S. Urban Latino market for cable programming and new media services, shows that 24% of all urban Hispanics currently subscribe to digital cable service from their cable company. Penetration of digital service in urban markets is 26%, according to the survey data. With three in ten "English-oriented" urban Latinos subscribing to digital cable, penetration among these consumers is notably higher than among the "Spanish-dominant" segment of the Latino marketplace among whom 19% of report having digital cable.

Though holiday performance reporting is ubiquitous, here's a quick breakdown of major categories and satisfactions on the Web this season. According to the eSpending Report from Goldman, Sachs & Co., Harris Interactive, and Nielsen//NetRatings online holiday shoppers spent a record $18.5 billion excluding travel during the 2003 holiday season. This represents an increase of 35 percent over the $13.7 billion spent in 2002.

Selected December Top 10's from Nielsen//NetRatings include special occasions, telecom services, news & Information, search engines, home & fashion, and commerce.