New video techniques growing, but the DVD still rules
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jul 7, 2008 at 4:59am
Online services such as the iTunes Store are still a loooong way from overtaking the DVD, but the growing availability of video in digital forms is impacting peoples’ expectations.
According to a new report from the “Home Technology Monitor” from Knowledge Networks—a research group that “specializes in solving complex, high-impact problems, providing extraordinary quality and service to leaders in business, government and academia”—as TV and movie studios push to make more of their video content available online, consumers are indeed turning to new video technologies—such as online streaming and mobile video—but most of their video-related spending continues to be on conventional sources such as DVD rentals and purchases.
The findings show that Generation Y (ages 13 to 29)—and, to a lesser extent, Generation X
(ages 30 to 43)—is way ahead of Young Boomers (ages 44 to 54) in using emerging video sources, such as mobile and streaming, but their spending on such video sources isn’t significantly higher. The study shows that the average person aged 13 to 54 spends roughly US$31 per month on video-related content. Of this, about $13 goes to TV service, and another $13 from buying and renting DVDs; meanwhile, spending on emerging video distribution
channels accounts for less than $5 combined.
According to this Knowledge Networks study, monthly video spending breaks down as follows:
° $13.43 on TV service
° $7.60 for DVD purchase; $5.14 for DVD rental
° 76 cents for VHS rental; $1.85 for VHS purchase
° 61 cents on PPV movies and events
° 44 cents on VOD
° 37 cents on streaming video
° 26 cents on cellphone video
° 25 cents on downloaded video
“DVDs are the bread and butter of content providers,” says David Tice, vice president and group account Director at Knowledge Networks and director of “The Home Technology Monitor.” “But the growing availability of video in digital forms is impacting peoples’ expectations; we found, for example, that 84 percent of consumers expect to be able to watch video on the device of their choice. The question is, will consumers be willing to pay for the convenience of access in the digital world? And how can content and service providers encourage repeat use and buying in the new media?”
(Data for this release were collected between March 18 and 28, 2008, via a nationally representative US sample of 765 respondents, ages 13 to 54.)
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
