College-age millennials still want their TV. They spend considerable time watching TV programming—but not necessarily on a TV screen. For example, according to a Chegg study they spend 10 hours a week watching TV, showing the old-school medium is still popular among youth today.

A study by youth marketing research/information firm Youth Pulse (YPulse), mentioned in MediaPost’s Media Daily News, found that 46% of college students view TV shows on a traditional TV set.

Different results were uncovered by agency Mr Youth, which asked what methods this group used to watch video. Some 38% of college students said they take in TV through basic cable and 31% said they did so through a premium cable service. But a whopping 91% view video on their laptops, while a majority watch on their smartphones or desktop PCs. More than one-third watch video content via a gaming console connected to a TV—more than had premium cable and nearly as many as had basic.

These high percentages indicate not that millennials are cutting the cable cord en masse, but that they “are leading the media users and adopters who are spearheading the movement to cutting the cord,” said Christian Borges, vice president of marketing at Mr Youth.

One reason for viewing via multiple screens is that many college students don’t have money in their budgets to pay cable bills. Another reason is they are comfortable consuming content without going through customary channels.

Also, pointed out David Yarus, Mr Youth’s marketing manager, “the chemistry of their communities is such that the adoption of these technologies is accelerated." They are interacting with so many of their peers online and offline that they are adopting these technologies fast and are pushing them ahead.

By watching what would formerly be considered simply “cable TV” through multiple devices, college-age millennials “are not conforming to the old ways that most consumers adhere to,” Borges explained. “They look at it as content when I want, where I want—not when you want. That’s something that most cable companies and most networks are still struggling with in regard to programming.”

The takeaway for marketers goes beyond merely advertising across multiple platforms. “Brands need to understand that it is a social conversation that they are entering,” advised Nick Fuller, senior director of marketing at Mr Youth. He said that even while watching long-form video, college students are socializing—tweeting with their friends, sharing on Facebook. “Knowing that they have these communications at their fingertips, brands should really understand how to enter into a conversation to create a deeper experience around the platform.”

Source:eMarketer

Despite an increasing fixation with all things digital—including online video viewing—US adults are still watching more and more traditional TV, whether it’s live or recorded on a DVR or DVD, eMarketer estimates. The average adult consumer spends 4 hours and 34 minutes each day watching TV and video on a traditional television set this year, up 10 minutes from last year.

Time spent with the internet and mobile phones was also up—by 7.7% and 30%, respectively—and while adults are spending less time than last year with radio and print publications, the increases to TV and digital also mean an increase in total time spent with media, to 11 hours and 33 minutes.

Mobile’s 30% jump from 2010 helped propel it past the 1-hour mark, but also means that US adults now spend more time with their mobile phones than with print magazines and newspapers combined, at 1 hour and 5 minutes vs. just 44 minutes.

Average Time Spent per Day with Major Media by US Adults, 2011 (hrs:mins)

eMarketer forms its estimates of time spent with media based on a meta-analysis of data from dozens of research sources, including survey and study data. TV and video includes any type of video watched on a traditional TV set, while all online video activities are included in the internet category. Time spent with each medium is averaged across the whole US adult population, not just users of the respective medium. Time spent with each medium also includes all time spent with that medium, regardless of multitasking, so an hour of watching TV while simultaneously on the internet is considered an hour of each activity.

Shifts in ad spending remain behind the shifting consumption patterns of the US population. While TV is unquestionably getting its fair share of dollars, the amount of ad spending going toward digital does not yet reflect the amount of time consumers have invested in these areas of their lives. Mobile, for example, has a more than 10% share of adults’ media time each day, but less than 1% of ad dollars. While much time spent on mobile is on communication activities that marketers would be wise not to interrupt (such as phone calls), it is also an underused touchpoint.

Share of Average Time Spent per Day with Select Media by US Adults vs. US Ad Spending Share, 2011 (% of total)

On the flip side, newspapers and magazines continue to command ad dollars far ahead of their importance in consumers’ day. Part of this is due to the cost of advertising—glossy magazine ads and full-page newspaper spreads command higher rates than much digital advertising. But it also indicates that the revenue troubles for print will likely continue as advertisers follow eyeballs and continue to pull spending from these media.

People across the Middle East have increasingly turned to the BBC during the ‘Arab Uprising’ with a record rise in audiences, according to independent research published today.

Overall audiences to the BBC’s Arabic services have risen by more than 50% to a record high of 33.4 million adults weekly – up from 21.6 million before the ‘Arab Spring’.

BBC Arabic TV’s audience has risen to 24.4million from 13.5million – up by more than 80 per cent. Weekly reach across Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabic, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco has nearly doubled to a weekly reach of 18.4% from 9.8%.*

The weekly audience estimates are based on an independent study that was carried out by the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ International Audience Research Program (IARP). Surveys were conducted in Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabic, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco.

Biggest increases were seen in Egypt, where the BBC Arabic TV audience quadrupled to a weekly reach of 16.2%, reaching 9.3 million people.

Liliane Landor, Controller, Languages, BBC Global News, said: “In turbulent times, the BBC’s aim to provide trusted news and impartial information is more valued than ever across the Middle East and North Africa.”

“These impressive figures show that international audiences are increasingly turning to the BBC for independent news that they can trust.

“In an increasingly competitive TV market, it demonstrates there will always be space for high-quality journalism that seeks to inform all, even-handedly.

The Financial Times has announces the latest figure for its Average Daily Global Audience (ADGA), which for the first time includes users of smartphone and tablet apps. Every day 2.1m people read FT content in print, online and through mobile apps around the globe, and the addition of new channels contributed to growth in excess of 9% year on year. Importantly, almost a quarter of a million readers (11%) access two or more channels every day.

ADGA uses a combination of sources including syndicated national and regional readership surveys, unique user and browser data, FT research based on large samples of its reader base as well as ABC circulation figures. The number is divided into channels as well as regions with almost 1.7m in print readership, 600,000 online and 25,000 for smart phone and tablet apps. Duplicated consumption is removed and PwC provides independent assurance.

Anita Hague, Global Research Director at the FT, said: “We launched ADGA in 2009 to provide an audience measurement that more accurately reflected our growing digital and multi-channel audience, and we have had a very positive response from the rest of the media industry. By increasing the number of channels we track, we can now map FT readers’ use of print and digital throughout the day and therefore better understand our increasingly mobile audience.”

In addition to the latest ADGA figures, the FT’s latest Global Reader Survey has found that readers are increasingly mobile with 25% taking six or more international flights per year, up from 14% in 2009.  Furthermore, 67% conduct business internationally, 36% are C-Suites and one in ten is a millionaire.  While most readers prefer using tablets and smartphones on the go, 40% of respondents choose to read the FT newspaper in order to find content they were not necessarily looking for.
 

London : comScore, Inc.  has released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing 368.6 million unique visitors went online in June 2011 for an average of 26.1 hours per person. This release highlights Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated under the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Among the reportable markets, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Turkey continued to show the highest average engagement, with users from these markets spending an average of more than 31 hours online in the past month.

Google Sites ranked as the top European web property in June with 335.4 million unique visitors (up 6 percent from a year ago), reaching 91.0 percent of the total European Internet audience. Microsoft Sites continued to rank second with 259.8 million visitors (70.5 percent reach), followed by Facebook.com in third place with 246.4 million visitors (66.8 percent reach). Among the top 50 properties for June, the biggest gains versus May came from Priceline.com Inc., which includes other travel sites Agoda and Booking.com, showing an overall 15 percent increase. Expedia Inc. also showed a 7-percent increase in visitors compared to May 2011, largely driven by an increase in traffic to TripAdvisor Sites.

Europeans continued to spend most of their time on average on social networking sites. Although European engagement with Russian social network VKontakte declined by 6 percent from the previous month, the property continued to display the highest average engagement among the top 30 properties, with Europeans spending 465.4 minutes (7.8 hours) on the site. Facebook.com maintained its lead over Russian web property Mail.ru in June with an average of 328.8 minutes (5.5 hours) spent by visitors on the property. Facebook.com also continued to account for the highest number of page views at 151.5 billion in June (up 8 percent), representing 15.3 percent of all pages viewed in Europe during the month.

In June 2011, a total of 167.2 million unique visitors went to Newspaper properties in Europe (up 11 percent from a year ago), spending 40.5 minutes on average during the month. The most visited Newspaper property in Europe was the British Daily Mail, drawing 17.2 million unique visitors who each spent an average of 25.9 minutes on the site. The Daily Mail also currently ranks as the second most popular Newspaper site worldwide.

The Guardian ranked second in Europe with 13.5 million unique visitors, followed by the German newspaper Bild with 9.9 million unique visitors. Turkish newspapers Hürriyet and Milliyet also ranked among the top five Newspaper properties, drawing 9.5 million unique visitors and 8.8 million unique visitors, respectively. Also among the top sites for June 2011 were French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro and Komsomolskaya Pravda and RIA Novosti from Russia. The New York Times property, the only non-European site in the list of top Newspaper entities, attracted nearly 5.7 million online readers from Europe.
 

Reston: comScore, Inc. has released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for June 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Several Travel subcategories ranked among the top-gainers in June as summertime officially began. Sporting Goods and Toy sites also saw gains as parents looked for ways to keep their kids occupied during the summer recess.

“Summer getaways were clearly top-of-mind for many Americans in June, sending millions of people to hotel, cruise, car rental and travel agent sites,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “And with school letting out for the summer, parents turned to the web to shop for ways to keep their kids active with sporting goods and other fun activities.”

An all-time high of 116 million people visited the Travel category in June, with half of the month’s top-gaining categories falling under this umbrella. Travel – Ground/Cruise sites saw the strongest gains, up 14 percent to nearly 13.5 million visitors. Amtrak.com ranked #1 with 2.6 million visitors (up 14 percent), followed by FirstGroup plc with 2.2 million (up 22 percent). Rivals staked out third and fourth place in the ranking, with Carnival Cruise Lines attracting 1.5 million visitors (up 9 percent) and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd with 1.1 million visitors (up 19 percent).

Hotel and Resort sites also saw a boost during the month with 34.8 million people visiting the category, up 13 percent versus May. Hilton Hotels took the top spot with 5.4 million visitors (up 24 percent), followed closely by Marriott with 5.4 million (up 18 percent). Choice Hotels International attracted 4.0

million visitors in June (up 40 percent), followed by InterContinental Hotels Group with 3.9 million and Wyndham Worldwide with 3.5 million, up 25 and 23 percent, respectively.

Online Travel Agent sites were popular among travelers looking to shop around for vacation deals and package discounts, rising 10 percent to 42 million visitors in June. Expedia Inc reached 28.1 million visitors during the month (up 15 percent), followed by Priceline.com Incorporated with 13.5 million (up 16 percent), Orbitz Worldwide with 10.9 million (up 10 percent), Fareportal Media Group with 7.5 million (up 1 percent) and Travelocity with 7.1 million (up 14 percent).
Americans Shop Sporting Goods and Toys for Summer Fun

Retail – Sports/Outdoor sites took the #2 spot on the top-growing categories list as Americans embraced the warm weather with outdoor activity. More than 32 million people visited the category during the month, up 14 percent overall, with eBay Sports U.S. earning the top ranking with 3.9 million visitors (up 18 percent). SportsAuthority.com came in second with 3.0 million visitors (up 94 percent), followed by DicksSportingGoods.com with 2.7 million visitors (up 15 percent). Cabelas Inc saw 2.4 million visitors (up 24 percent), while BassPro.com rounded out the top five with 1.7 million (up 20 percent).

15.7 million Americans visited a Toy site in June, as parents looked for ways to keep their kids entertained while out of school for the summer. Toysrus Sites led the category with 5.9 million visitors (up 16 percent), followed by The LEGO Group with 2.5 million (up 11 percent), Disney Shopping with 1.2 million (up 7 percent) and AmericanGirl.com with 890,000 (up 26 percent).

Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in June with 182.5 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 178.4 million and Microsoft Sites with 173.6 million. Amazon Sites jumped 1 position to rank #6 with 95.8 million visitors, Disney Online jumped 8 positions to #32 (32.6 million visitors), and Twitter.com jumped 9 positions to #37 (30.6 million visitors). Expedia Inc appeared in the top 50 ranking at #39 (28.1 million visitors).

Google Ad Network led the June Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.8 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus (86.3 percent), AOL Advertising (85.9 percent), Yahoo! Sites (83.2 percent) and Google (82.2)
 

Sydney : comScore, Inc. has released a report on the online video market in Australia from its comScore Video Metrix service. The report showed that more than 10.7 million Australian Internet users watched online video in May, with viewers averaging more than 10 hours of total viewing time during the month. YouTube delivered video to more than 8.6 million viewers in Australia during the month, reaching 3 out of every 5 online users at an average of 70 videos per viewer.

Australian Internet users watched nearly 1.2 billion total videos in May, with Google Sites ranking as the top video property with 613 million videos, representing 52.3 percent of all videos viewed online. YouTube accounted for the vast majority of videos viewed at the Google Sites property. Microsoft Sites ranked second with 35.6 million videos, or 3.0 percent of all online videos viewed. Facebook.com ranked third with 16.9 million videos (1.4 percent), followed by VEVO with 16.4 million videos (also 1.4 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 15.6 million videos (1.3 percent).

Nearly 10.8 million viewers watched an average of 108.8 videos per viewer during May. Google Sites attracted nearly 8.7 million unique viewers during the month (70.7 videos per viewer), followed by Microsoft Sites with 3.3 million viewers (10.7 videos per viewer) and Facebook.com with 2.9 million viewers (5.9 videos per viewer).

An analysis at video viewing occurring on News/Information sites found that viewers watched an average of 46.6 minutes of video in the category during May, with 17 percent of the entire online audience viewing video on News/Information sites during the month. Based on total videos viewed, Australian Broadcasting Corporation led as the top destination with nearly 5.5 million videos viewed on the site in May. Australian Broadcasting Corporation also saw the highest average minutes per viewer of the top 5 destinations at 66.6 minutes per viewer during the month.

Yahoo! News Network ranked as the second largest News/Information video destination based on total videos viewed with nearly 1.5 million videos watched on the site in May, followed by News.com.au Sites with 1.46 million videos. CNN Network and HPMG News rounded out the top five with viewers watching a total of 1.38 million videos and 714,000 videos, respectively.

Moscow: comScore, Inc.has announced the launch of Video Metrix in Russia. The online video measurement service, Video Metrix, which was the first to market in the U.S. more than four years ago, has since been launched in numerous markets around the world including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey. The tool has been developed to enable comScore’s clients to gain the insights into online video viewing needed to succeed in the online video marketplace. comScore’s Video Metrix report shows that in May 2011, 4 billion online videos were viewed by over 41 million unique viewers in Russia. Since March 2011, the first month under measurement in Russia, the online video audience has grown by 5 percent and 27 percent more videos haven been consumed since March 2011.

In Russia, More Than a Third of All Online Videos Watched on YouTube

Google Sites, which includes video sharing site YouTube, is the most popular destination for online video viewing by a large margin, attracting 30.6 million unique viewers in May 2011. During the month, viewers watched 1.5 billion videos on YouTube, accounting for an average of 50 videos per viewer. Ranking as the second most used online video platform, with over 18 million unique viewers and 165 million videos watched, is the Mail.ru Group. Gazprom Media, owner of Rutube.ru, ranked third with 12.3 million unique viewers and 178 million videos watched, followed by Yandex Sites, the largest search engine provider and most popular website overall in Russia, with 6.5 million unique viewers who watched over 35 million videos.

Young Males Show Highest Engagement with Online Video

In May 2011, 85 percent of the Russian internet population viewed online video and watched an average of ­­­97 videos per person, totalling 11 hours of viewing time per person during the month. However, there were significant differences in online video engagement by age and gender. Males between the age of 15-24 were the most engaged in Russia, and viewed an average of 156 videos each for 17.8 hours. Comparatively, females from the same age group consumed on average 11.8 hours of online video content, watching 99 videos per person. Online video appealed the least to females age 55 and older who spent only 7.9 hours on average watching 69 videos.

Overall, and across all age groups, the gap between male and female online video viewing habits is quite significant. On average, each male watched 32 videos more and spent 3.5 hours more watching online videos than his female counterpart.

Clients Support Video Metrix in Russia

“For the first time, with the launch of Video Metrix a more complete picture of video consumption in Russia is available. Now we understand how video is viewed not only on the top leading specialized multimedia sites, but on a multitude of sites with video players. It is highly important to our clients to know how many videos unique visitors view on average, how much time is spent on video content and many other types of data available. From now on, we are going to refer to the Video Metrix data and take it into account when evaluating the market and our business,”  Mikhail Ilyichev, CEO of RuTube said.

“We’re pleased with the arrival of comScore’s Video Metrix service to Russia. As a key player in this market, we strongly believe that reliable video measurement will help the industry develop and grow. As insight about the scale of video consumption continues to be made available, there will be an even greater propensity to trust the digital medium to build brands,”  Vladimir Dolgov, Country Manager of Google Russia said.
 

Tokyo :comScore, Inc.has  released a study on the use of various Japanese media sources in the aftermath of the March earthquake and tsunami disaster based on data from the comScore MobiLens and comScore Media Metrix services. The study found that the largest percentage of people (83 percent) identified television to be very important as an information source after the disaster, followed by fixed Internet (72 percent), radio broadcasts (66 percent) and mobile phones (49 percent).

"After the events in March, people relied on a variety of media sources for the latest information and developments," said Daizo Nishitani, comScore vice president for Japan. "TV, fixed Internet, radio and mobile phones were all critical communication channels across the country in the days and weeks following the events. The media sources that were most important and useful during this time were heavily influenced by both people's age and regional location, underscoring the fragmented nature of media consumption in Japan."

When asked how important various information sources were for obtaining updates after the earthquake and tsunami, 83 percent of people ranked television as very important, while 72 percent cited Internet access through a personal computer. Radio broadcasts were very important for 66 percent of people, while 49 percent specified the use of mobile phones..

The importance of media sources varied considerably across age segments. Compared to older consumers, younger users found PC Internet and mobile devices more important as information sources after the disaster. Approximately 78 percent of people age 35-44 cited the fixed Internet as very important, accounting for the largest percentage of users ranking this medium as very important. Mobile phones were ranked as very important by more than half of users age 13-34, demonstrating the importance of this medium among younger consumers.

In contrast, television and radio broadcasts were more important sources of information for users in older age segments. Within 55-64 year olds, 90 percent ranked TV as very important, as did 91 percent of those 65 and older. Radio was ranked as very important by 75 percent of people age 55-64 and 78 percent of people age 65 and older.

An analysis of how people utilized their mobile devices in Japan found that 36.5 million people accessed information on their mobile phones following the earthquake and tsunami, representing 36.2 percent of the mobile population in Japan. Of those that utilized their mobile devices, 72 percent used their mobile browser, 26 percent watched television or video on their mobile, 24 percent received text or email alerts, while 6 percent used a mobile application.

An analysis of fixed Internet usage revealed a pronounced increase in visitors to online newspaper sites in March. From February 2011 to March 2011, category visitation jumped 30 percent to nearly 32.6 million unique visitors as people turned to the web for the latest national news. Each of the top 10 newspaper sites saw visitation grow by at least double-digits during the month. Asahi Shimbun was the most-visited newspaper destination reaching 14.2 million people, more than doubling its visitor base from February. Mainichi Shimbun followed at 13.5 million (up 47 percent) with Sankei Shimbun reaching 13 million visitors (up 30 percent).
 

Santiago: comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its white paper, The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Site-Server and Ad-Server Metrics in Latin America: An Empirical comScore Study. The study addresses the key sources of discrepancy between server-based and panel-based data and reveals that cookie deletion can lead to large overstatements in server logs’ measurement of the size of online audiences. Without appropriate adjustments, server-based audience reports can be inflated up to 2.5 times the actual number of unique visitors. The study analyzes behaviors in Latin America, including individual market analysis for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Approximately 33 percent of Internet users delete their first-party (i.e. web site) cookies in a month. Third-party (i.e. ad server) cookie deletion rates are even higher than first-party deletion rates, with nearly 43 percent of Internet users deleting their third-party cookies in a month.

“Serial cookie deleters” have a profound impact on inflating site-server logs because they represent a small percentage of computers, but a very large share of observed cookies.

Because of the high rate of cookie deletion, a server-centric measurement system which uses cookies to measure the size of a site’s visitor base will typically overstate the true number of monthly unique visitors by a factor of up to 2.5x in Latin America.

Similarly, the study found that an ad-server system which uses cookies to track the reach and frequency of an online campaign will overstate monthly reach by a factor of up to 5.2x and understate frequency to the same degree.

Comparing cookie deletion rates across individual Latin America markets, the study reported third-party cookies being deleted by 42-45 percent of computers per month, with first-party deletion rates in excess of 30 percent in each country. Argentina exhibited the highest rates of cookie deletion for both first-party and third-party cookies at 36 percent and 45 percent of Internet users, respectively.