CMP Media's Managing Offshore and Call Center Magazine announced groundbreaking results from a study on the corporate and consumer use of call centers. Rusty Weston, founding editor of Managing Offshore, said "Call centers are at a low point in terms of public and media perception. Between Do Not Call registration and the controversy generated by offshoring, call centers have attracted a tremendous amount of negative attention. This study highlights that both business and consumer customers are dissatisfied with and wary of offshore call centers."

According to a new report series from Forrester Research, Inc., consumers who own digital video recorders (DVRs) like TiVo, spend nearly 60 percent of their time watching recorded or delayed programs, in which they skip 92 percent of ads. These habits are important because today's DVR users (5 percent of households) will grow to 41 percent within five years, according to Forrester. The survey results have been published in the two-part report series, "Inside The Mind Of The DVR User."

Every 8.4 seconds another baby boomer turns 50. From 1990 to 2020, the elderly population is expected to increase to 54 million persons (US Census Report) At current rates of growth, there will soon be more grandparents than youth, notes the website of SMPG (Senior Publishers Media Group)

According to the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) September revenue release, local Radio revenue remained steady for July, increasing 1% over the same month from a year ago. National dollars decreased 15% this July when compared to July of 2003, contributing to an overall dip of 3% in combined total local and national ad sales revenue.

According to the findings of a new National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, the average college student will spend $605.69 of their own money on back-to-college merchandise this year. Before returning to campus, college students and their parents will pump $25.7 billion into the economy, nearly twice as much as what will be spent on elementary through high school students ($14.8 billion).

An ongoing 3M campaign to build the World's Largest Pink Ribbon captured the fastest growing Website at-work and the second fastest growing site at-home during the week ending August 29, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. The campaign seeks to build the World's Largest Pink Ribbon in Times Square constructed of 75,000 pink Post-it Super Sticky Notes, to be revealed in October during the first week of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

BuzzMetrics, a company specializing in word of mouth research and planning, released a new report revealing how word of mouth and online discussion forums shaped a food-industry crises. When a leading consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit against food giant Kraft over its use of partially-hydrogenated oils in Oreo cookies, a frenzy erupted across thousands of consumer online discussion platforms.

Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., which produces The Media Audit, noted in a recent release that "Hispanics are moving beyond the border states and the traditional metro immigrant centers." Although not a national survey, The Media Audit's aggregate numbers generally track national findings.

According to a recent In-Stat/MDR survey, cable Video-on-Demand (VOD), though not a huge revenue generator, it can still serve as an important service "differentiator" in terms of comparing digital cable TV services to satellite TV services. Even as the number of VOD users is on the rise, consumer interest in VOD service remains lukewarm due to concerns about pricing and a continued lack of compelling content.

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