All television episode consumption in our household is done via the Internet site Hulu.com , yet often hooked to the television’s bigger screen. Movie consumption done by us adults in the household is split approximately 50/50% between streaming and DVD (usually watched on a television even when streaming) and for the children is 100% DVD (95% watched on television and 5% on laptop, however both the 7 and 9 year old often stream small videos through YouTube).

Within the past months I have seen a couple write-ups by the KenRadio newsletter discussing the PC’s gain on television.

While TV’s place as the preeminent channel for Americans to watch video content remains safe for now, the PC is slowly encroaching on the TV’s dominance, capturing an increasing amount of screen time among those who download or stream video online, according to a new study by Ipsos Media. The percentage of video consumed on a TV among video downloaders and streamers declined from 75% in February 2007 to 70% in February 2008 – a small, yet significant drop in overall ‘share of screen time’ with the growing contingent of digital video users. In addition, the percentage of total screen time captured by movie theaters also declined significantly in the past year. Streaming video online has become an activity many Americans aren’t just experimenting with, but enjoy on a regular basis. About half of all Internet users aged 12 and up have streamed a video file online in the past 30 days. The growing sophistication of home PCs, as well as the ubiquity of high-speed Internet connections in the home and outside, really facilitated the experimentation process with the digital video medium, and subsequently caused many to adopt the PC as a channel they rely on for video entertainment.

Coinciding with the drop in these more traditional channels’ share of screen time is an equally significant year-over-year gain in overall screen time for the PC, which nearly doubled its overall share (19%) with digital video consumers since early in 2007 (11%). Today, among the 52% of American’s age 12+ whom have ever streamed or downloaded a digital video file online, about one out of every five hours spent watching movies, TV shows and/or other types of videos is done so on a PC. Perhaps just as interesting as the PC’s ascent in video entertainment is the relative lack of growth in the overall share of screen time being allocated to other, more portable video devices such as portable DVD players, digital media players and mobile phones. Wright goes on to explain why growth in share of screen time with portable devices may be limited. While the number of device options are growing for consumers to access and watch their favorite video content, what isn’t necessarily changing is the location where we enjoy this video content – our homes. This, combined with the growing demand for digital video content, is why we’re seeing the shift in share of screen time away from traditional video channels to the PC right now.

Interesting write up as I fall into this category of users. In accordance with the article, most of my video and episode consumption is done in my home and even when Rob and I do decide to take a movie with us to watch while camping, it is a laptop we take rather than my portable DVD player.

It seems that a big reason for the shift to PC from television is the want for on-demand without the need of cable (and Tivo). Prior to the NBC loading its Office episodes to their network site, I gladly paid the $1.99 weekly charge through Apple to download each weekly episode. The want of on-demand and the ability to re-watch each episode was worth the minimal $1.99 charge. When NBC pulled the shows from Apple and put them on the network site, I gladly transitioned as the episodes were free, though rudely interrupted by completely annoying commercial breaks. However, the viewing on Hulu is the best of all worlds with the free episodes and seamlessly integrated advertisements. From my consumer viewpoint Hulu is:

• substantially easier to navigate than the network sites, definitely easier to find full episodes versus clips
• the ad placements are better integrated, not as intrusive and actually quite interesting (a point discussed below)
• consumer friendly due to its aggregation of partner content on one site, allowing the user to jump from different episodes and movies, simply enjoying the content rather than worrying what network produces what content.

Looking at the users who do shift to online viewing, Hulu has been able to capture a significant amount of viewers in comparison to the network landing page. Hulu (according to the numbers below) is able to hold the interest twice as long (in comparison to the network landing pages) for users seeking comedies, while users seeking drama usually revert to the network sites.

Plus, the commercials on Hulu are definitely not as intrusive and actually quite interesting, lately integrating a cyber ethics theme. For instance, one of the last advertisements I viewed showed a teenage girl highly criticizing another teenager girl in a face-to-face confrontation. The commercial then flashed to text stating if you wouldn’t criticize a person in a face-to-face scenario what makes it alright online. Another commercial focused on the idea of piracy being theft and how a user wouldn’t steal a purse or a car, so why would it then be ok to pirate music online.

The most amazing takeaway for me is I have noticed that now that Hulu has launched I watch substantially more television episodes than when I owned cable television. It just seems so easy to quickly watch an episode after a long day at work. =)

What is the feedback from you readers? What is your watching behavior? Have you checked out the network sites or Hulu?

]]> http://www.wasatchgirl.com/2008/07/24/pc-gaining-television-audience/feed/ 1 http://www.wasatchgirl.com/2008/05/28/women-blogger-research/ http://www.wasatchgirl.com/2008/05/28/women-blogger-research/#comments Wed, 28 May 2008 16:23:33 +0000 WasatchGirl http://www.wasatchgirl.com/2008/05/28/women-blogger-research/ I subscribe to the Ken Radio newsletter. He often provides tidbits of information that I find interesting, with this last newsletter being no exception as it was concerning the demographic of the woman blogger. I couldn’t find this content on his site (perhaps it was just in his newsletter?!) so will share here.

The Women Bloggers
36.2 million women write and read blogs every week and approximately half consider blogs a “highly reliable’ or “very reliable” source of information and advice about everything from products to presidential candidates. 15.1 million publishing and 21.1 million reading and commenting. Fully 24% of women surveyed say they now watch less television because they are blogging instead. The new survey by BlogHer shows American women are drawn to participate in the blogosphere primarily because it provides access to the content they want, when they want it. Survey results also indicate that the blogging community’s fundamental trust in one another has contributed to its rapid growth. 68% of the female blogisphere community is concentrated in the 25 to 41 age group (the GenXr’s), compared to 42% for the general blogging population. Together, the Millienials and the Matures account for only about 10% of this community. Two thirds have completed college, and 46% earn over $75,000 compared to only 25% of the general community.

The blogging rates are highest among Millennials and GenX “digital natives” and Online media participation rates decline with increasing age.

Women are so passionate about blogging, that large percentages said they would give something up to keep the blogs they read and/or write:
* 55% would give up alcohol
* 50% would give up their PDAs
* 42% would give up their i-Pod
* 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines
* Only 20% would give up chocolate

Time shift from traditional media is accelerating in the general Internet population:
* 24% of women surveyed watch less television because of blogging
* 25% read fewer magazines because they are blogging
* 22% read fewer newspapers because they’re blogging

More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information, half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions.

Intriguing. In response to some of these questions (not all) concerning where I fit into this research:

• I live in a household of 4 people, 2 of which are here on a part time basis. This is a new living arrangement though as I previously lived alone for the past 2.5 years.
• I completed highschool, undergrad and have taken some computer science classes after completion of my business degree
• I read, write and comment on blogs
• I would willingly give up magazine and newspapers (as long as I could read the digital edition). In fact, I prefer to read online for environmental reasons.
• I definitely watch less television and read less magazines and newspapers due to blogging.
• And yes, blogs can influence my purchase decisions, especially when it comes to products of high interest (climbing gear, computers) or written by people who I trust / admire.

If you are a woman blogger, what are your responses to this survey?

Last year I posted about the due diligence process and a business plan breakdown, but over time my viewpoints on analysis have slightly shifted. It seems that a good portion of deals I review are past the earliest stage and have added a couple members of management and possibly infused seed capital. For the past couple months I have been experimenting with the approach of looking at each company from the view points of opportunity and the company’s ability to capture this opportunity.

The opportunity of a deal consists of the main pieces of why and how a problem is being solved, i.e. the technology, product, business model and market. Basically the analysis of ‘is this a technology that can be used to create a product that is needed (and wanted) in the marketplace and priced in a range that will attract consumer dollars.’

The opportunity ‘capturability’ (no, this is not really a word but I have yet to find an accurate descriptor) lies in the factors that will push the aforementioned opportunity into fruition, a trickier mix of variables to encounter. The ability to capitalize on an opportunity analyzes the competition and the levels of competitive presence in the market, financial stability, market risks … but mostly the strength of the management team. Basically, ‘does the summation of the competitors in the marketplace plus the known risks equal a market gap that can be seized by this management team and the capital they have received?’

The overlay of the ability to capture and the opportunity itself will never perfectly align as the alignment discrepancy is the risk of the deal, the risk the investor must decide if they are willing to take to earn the projected reward.

Right now I am using this approach without quantifying each variable, which would be do-able. I have yet to quantify as it seems that an integral part of our investment decision is based on our gut feel towards the management team, something quite hard to explain in numbers. I also use this approach to simply assist me in thinking about the relationship and correlation of all the business elements.

When I initially blogged I had yet to check out Wink. Since then, not only have I checked it out, but find it to be a great resource. Out of curiosity I wondered if they were venture backed and it looks like they have raised three rounds of financing (the amount of the third round undisclosed) from Cambrian Ventures, Endeavor Group, The Founders Fund, Greylock Partners and some individuals.

Wink markets itself as a people search engine, searching such sites as Myspace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn, etc. However, rather than just being a search engine, it has the value to a consumer of being a place that tracks online profiles with the ability of adding a widget to the consumer’s blog. If the user only has a couple of online profiles this probably isn’t a huge added value, but with someone with 33 profiles like Synstelien, this is a useful tool which in return helps Wink with the searching. (On my blogs I list my “digital footprint” so am jazzed to try out this new little widget …. look for it within the week).

Yet there seems to be more than just a profile placeholder. It has the community aspect with the ability to add friends, but not like the Myspace friends. It appears to be more for advice rather than just chit chat (note that this is my first impression and could change over time).

So the product is interesting with value, but now we must consider the business model. Yes… the business model. I don’t see a premium version option anywhere…. nor am I being bombarded with advertising….. I can’t imagine that the sites they are searching would pay them…. According to an interview with the CEO, Michael Tanne, it looks like it will have an advertising model and supposedly Google Ads are already being used (but I don’t see an ad anywhere).

My first thoughts are it is a great search engine (by far the best resource when it comes to social search) and I need to look into the consumer side further by creating a profile and adding a widget on my blog. More thoughts to come….

• Proquest – (sometimes listed as Wall Street Journal Historical Newspaper) the “king” of the news is usually availabe through a university and/or library. This database includes a full range of articles that can be searched according to a time frame.
• LexisNexis – data quality is just as good as Proquest, just has a trickier user interface. Lexis probably has actually more data than Proquest, but one must know how to find it. Even trying to search within a date range can be a little tricky (look on the advanced tab as the basic tab only lets you search within a two year time frame but the advanced lets you expand your options).
• Factiva – another great database of news articles that usually requires some type of log-in.
• Business & Company Database – this database pulls up a lot of links, but doesn’t seem to provide the full text very often, being quite useless for research reasons.
• Company website – an obvious resource for press releases, but one must beware of bias. Often companies in certain tech industries will upload analyst reports.

Have any readers of this blog ever been able to track down this information? Perhaps it was just the stock we were looking for as it had gone through an acquisition…. ?

• Reuters On Demand – If the publication being searched for is from a business analyst or analyst group, the best database is by far Multex, which was bought by Reuters and is often listed now as Reuters On Demand. This database is utterly fantastic, but of course requires some sort of log-in. Certain universities will have access.
• The big analyst sites: Depending on the industry and sector being researched, the big analyst sites should be checked. Most likely everything on the site will cost money to purchase, but sometimes it is possible to figure out which study should be searched out or even little clips of the necessary info might be available. The main sites include: Gartner, Aberdeen, Forrester and IDC. (Note that there are probably tons more sites, but these are the ones I use most frequently in my research.)
• Thompson Research – provides analyst research but requires a subscription.
• MarketResearch.com – I have used this site a couple times, but have very rarely found the info I was seeking. A log-in is necessary.
• Company websites – Many times companies will give the public free access to analyst white papers because the paper mentions that company name in a positive light. This usually happens in competitive industries that are targeting business rather than consumers.

I just had a research project where I needed to find past employees of a certain company. I thought this would be somewhat tricky, but ended up being an easy task. Here is some useful info:

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn gets a big round of applause in this research area. I have used the service in the past to house my connections and my personal info, but today this service became invaluable. I found so many great leads simply through searching for the company I was after. From there, it was completely easy to do other searches to back into contact information.
• Today (March 31) I just realized that the name of the contact can only be seen if they are in my personal network (meaning that through the linking of my connections there is a link to the person at the company). I didn’t realize this in my initial search. I have noticed that finding names for companies in the technology space seems to be easy as my network consists of technology people. However, finding someone in perhaps the retail space is a lot trickier. I did notice that when researching the tech space a plethora of names resulted from the search; whereas very few within the retail sector. This means that 1) obviously more tech people are interested in the LinkedIn service and 2) the more my network grows, the better of a research tool this will become 3) as a research I would like all information just to pull up, but from a personal viewpoint I am glad that my info could only be seen if I was located within a network
• VentureSource: VentureSource is great if and only if the company is private and has been financed. If the company has gone through an exit, VentureSource stops tracking it, resulting in the useful info only being in the private realm. VentureSource is very extensive on the research and provides the board members of the private companies. If the contact being searched for is affiliated with a private company, this could be a good first stop.
• Wink: Wink is a VC funded people search engine. I thought it would be very similar to ZoomInfo and never provide me with any useful results. My first search pulled up results that were anything but I was looking for. However, after re-defining my search I received applicable information. What I instantly liked about the service is it is a search engine/aggregator of information already on the net, and it references where the info is located while providing the direct link.
• In reference to my LinkedIn comments above, Wink helps you find people outside of your network. This option might be available to premium users of LinkedIn, but alas I am not one of them.
• ZoomInfo: Zoominfo is known to be a search engine for contacts, but to be honest I have never had it prove useful. I don’t know if this is because I don’t have a premium subscription, but to be honest, I have had zero luck without a premium subscription so why would I ever invest? That being said, I still use it to see if it can find any info I have missed elsewhere, but have yet to be successful.