According to the Pew Social & Demographic Trends Center, reported here last week, consumers are increasingly less likely to consider TV sets as necessities. But reported today, Nielsen estimates an increase of one million TV homes in the U.S from last year, climbing to 115.9 million for the 2010-2011 broadcast season.

According to a revised radio industry forecast from BIA/Kelsey, reported in the third edition of BIA/Kelsey's quarterly "Investing In Radio Market Report," the radio industry will see its over-the-air revenues in 2010 climb 4.4% over last year to $13.93 billion, with another $459.3 million in revenues coming from digital and online sources. Stations in top 10 market cities will average a 6.26% increase from 2009, while San Francisco and Philadelphia can expect overall revenue growth of 8% due primarily to an increase in spending by national advertisers.

According to the comScore/ImpactRx Physician Behavioral Measurement solution, 81% of physicians online visited Health Care Professional (HCP) content sites in Q1 2010, leading as the most-visited health-related content category among physicians. HCP sites also captured 48% of physicians' overall time spent on health-related sites, the largest share of any category. John Mangano, comScore vice president of pharmaceutical marketing solutions, said "... physicians are increasingly turning to digital media as a source of health-related information to supplement their practice... understanding which health-related destinations are frequented by physicians, brand marketers and advertisers can effectively reach and engage this audience segment."

A new study by the DMRSGroup on compiled lists,. "Online Sources of B-to-B Data: A Comparative Analysis, 2010" reveals an evolution in how business data are collected and offered. While business data tend to be relatively accurate, the breadth of company contacts is spotty, says the report. Ruth P. Stevens, a customer acquisition and retention consultant, Columbia University, and co-author of the study, says "... the fundamental background for this study is the general lack of confidence business marketers have in publicly available prospecting files... but, the large vendors of compiled data... are eager as to show what they …

The Gallup annual Confidence in Institutions survey found the military faring best and Congress faring worst of 16 institutions tested. Americans' confidence in newspapers and television news is on par with Americans' lackluster confidence in banks and slightly better than their dismal rating of Health Management Organizations and big business. Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news, with no more than 25% of Americans saying they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in either. These views have hardly budged since falling more than 10 percentage points from 2003-2007.

When American adults were asked if they would most want to be richer, thinner, smarter, or younger, 43% professed that they would want to be richer, the largest group "wish." The new Harris Poll of U.S. adults, By Samantha Braverman, Project Researcher, found that 21% of Americans would like to be thinner, 14% said smarter and 12% said younger. And different strokes becomes apparent as preferred traits are chosen depending on the segment.

According to a recent Nielsen analysis of mobile use, African-Americans use the most cellphone voice minutes every month, averaging more than 1,300. Hispanics are the next most talkative group, at 826 minutes a month. And, even Asians/Pacific Islanders, with 692 average monthly minutes, talk more than Whites, who use roughly 647 voice minutes a month.

According to a new nationwide survey from the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project, reported by Paul Taylor and Wendy Wang with Lee Rainie and Aaron Smith, only 42% of Americans say they consider the television set to be a necessity. Last year, this figure was 52%, and in 2006, it was 64%. After occupying center stage in the American household for much of the 20th century, says the report, two of the grand old luminaries of consumer technology, the television set and the landline telephone, are suffering from a sharp decline in public perception that they …

According to a white paper to be released in September, "Affluent Mothers Of Young Children," by Donna Sabino, SVP, Ipsos OTX, "kid" effects are evident when comparing affluent women with children under 18 to those without children. Sacrifice and lifestyle reprioritization are clear. Of the 15.6 million affluent female heads of house age 18 to 54 (annual household incomes of $100,000 or more) more than half, or 9.4 million, are mothers of children under 18. Even when age is accounted for, affluent women without children are far more likely to demonstrate stereotypically "affluent" behaviors, living, consuming, and acting in …

According to a study presented at a Pivot Conference (in partnership with Extra Mile Research) entitled "Marketers' Current and Future Use of Social Media," 63% of marketers are already investing in social media marketing, and of the 37% that are not currently investing in social media marketing, 62% are planning to invest, including 46% who plan to do so within one year.