The Baroness and I have watched shows online -- not many but a few -- when the DVR has failed and we have missed episodes. It's a very pleasant experience and is incredibly convenient. We have rarely watched any VOD (though this could be because we have dreaded Cablevision). With that said, the numbers from this Solutions Research Group study are somewhat surprising.
According to the study, 20% of Internet users watched a show online each week and 14% watched some VOD programming each week. I assume a large percentage of the VOD comes from folks who have Comcast, which is pushing hard with its free-VOD-with-ads model. Still, I was very surprised at the overall usage numbers for both segments. It would have also been helpful to know if the results had been broken down into free VOD versus pay-per-view, but alas, no such luck.
Online Viewing Rules Over VOD
The Super Bowl Ad Disconnect
We promise this will be the last post on the Super Bowl (most likely). The ads, of course, have received plenty of attention, from the sky-high cost to the post-game rankings. What's interesting if you think back to it (or go back and view them again as I did), is how few companies used the Web to their advantage. According to the MediaPost story, while 84% of ads included a URL, only 26% of the ads (including the dot-coms) featured any sort of call-to-action.
There's plenty of lip-service paid to the power of the Internet in regard to advertising, but there seemed to be a disconnect here. Sure, you can see the ads again on MySpace or Hulu, but most of the companies did not run deeply integrated campaigns which used the Web to provide added value. This sentence from the story sums it up: "And while almost half of all 2008 Super Bowl advertisers had an official YouTube page or social networking profile--not one of them made mention of their presence in the TV spot."
Any Friend of The Baron's, Should Be a Friend of Yours
Shameless plug alert: One of The Baron's oldest friends, Oren Kaunfer, has started writing for the NY Sun, filling in for the paper's parenting writer who's on maternity leave. Here is his first column, dealing with one of life's major problems (at least for New Yorkers).
Super Numbers for Super Bowl
No surprise at all, but yesterday's Super Bowl posted a big number. What may be surprising is that based on sheer numbers it was second on the list of most watched TV shows in U.S TV history! Maybe even more surprising, the MASH series finale drew the biggest audience ever.
This is why the networks can charge $2.7 million for a 30-second ad and companies pass it over without thinking twice. In the increasingly fragmented media world, the Super Bowl never fails to deliver. Even better, the ads are part of the spectacle and they get plenty of coverage before and after the game.
Can Microhoo Challenge Google?
Just a quick post on this Monday, sandwiched in between Super Bowl Sunday and Super Tuesday. It's very interesting how things have changed in regard to Microsoft. The company was once considered the great big bully on the block. These days, even though Microsoft still retains many of those qualities, the proposed merger with Yahoo has some thinking that it would be a good thing to have a challenger to Google in the search/online ad market.
If this Yahoo-Microsoft deal goes through, one of the most interesting pieces will be whether Microsoft decides to challenge the open source software piece of Google's business. Google has had some success with its open source applications and that area is only growing as users become more comfortable with it. Microsoft, of course, built itself on the sale of its proprietary software, which has the overwhelming share of the market.
Broadband and the U.S.: Slip Sliding Away
In America, we like to think of ourselves as part of the most technologically advanced nation on Earth. Or at least somewhere close to the top of the list. The truth is, as it relates to the penetration of broadband technology, we are ranked 15th in the world and we are sliding. But you can thank your lucky stars we don't live in Paraguay.
Why mention this now? Well, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration just published a report telling us that all is well. (Isn't that shocking from a Bush Administration department?) The folks at Ars Technica have done a nice job explaining why the report misses the point. Basically, our numbers of folks with broadband may be increasing, but they are not increasing as quickly as other countries and that can mean lost economic opportunities down the road.
An interesting sidebar to this conversation comes from The Economist, which examines the incredible growth of Internet use in China. It's a inside look at how the Chinese use the Internet differently than most other developed countries.
Social Networking No Longer as Social
For those of you that thought my confusion about Facebook was just a rant, well, you were right. But some surprising numbers in both total audience and more importantly in engagement show that social networking has a long way to go before it takes over the world.
The audience numbers for MySpace have dropped more than 4% since October. The story goes on to say: "Time spent on Bebo.com has been sliced in half over the last four months, while Friendster’s time spent has plummeted nearly 75% in the same time period. Overall, minutes spent per site fell 5% in December 2007 compared to the year-ago period." Even the great Facebook is not immune. The site's audience numbers have improved, but its engagement metrics are down.
That's the beauty of the web, right? You can go nuts looking at all sorts of different metrics.
