Week of February 23, 2009

Video Games Buck Down Economy

Friday, February 27, 2009

Market research group, NPD, indicates that video game sales were up again in January, possibly the only economic sector with growth. Sales increased 13% in January to $1.33 billion, with Nintendo Wii highlighted as one of the biggest factors in the growth. All sectors of the video game industry moved upwards: hardware sales were up 17% while software and accessories each went up by 10%. The big driver of the

Teenagers Online Habits

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Being online is almost a full-time job if you're a teenager. According to a survey by a British organization, www.cybersentinel.co.uk, 1000 teenagers who were interviewed averaged 31 hours a week online. Here's a breakout on how much time they spent each week doing various things online:

• 3 1/2 hours communicating with friends via IM
• 2 hours watching YouTube and in chat rooms
• 3 hours doing homework
• 1 hour, 40 minutes looking at porn
• 1 hour looking up cosmetic surgery procedures such as breast enhancement and collagen implants
• 1 1/2 hours on family planning and pregnancy websites
• 1 hour, 35 minutes investigating diets and weight loss.

Not surprisingly, 1 in 3 in the survey said they try to hide what they're doing if a parent comes in the room. And more alarmingly, 1 in 4 admitted that they regularly spoke to strangers online, but thought it harmless.

Portable Porn, Part 2

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

As noted previously, the mobile porn market is growing fast ($2.2 billion in '08). But the growth is coming in Western Europe, not from the US. According to Juniper Research, 42% of the mobile porn revenue is generated in Europe, but only 2% comes from the US. It's not for lack of enthusiasm in North America, but rather there are two other important hurdles: 1) the lack of penetration (couldn't resist) of 3G phone systems compared to other parts of the world and 2) mobile carriers (especially in the US) are reluctant to introduce age verification systems.

More Portable Porn

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Who knew...Porn is a growth industry. Juniper Research recently released a report that says that claims that the global market for adult content via mobile increased by 36% in '08 to an estimated $2.2 billion. They also estimate that is will be a $4.9 billion business by 2013, with video-chat services being the driving force. These numbers have been severely adjusted upwards since 2007 when Juniper projected the mobile porn market to reach $3.5 billion by 2010.

Digital TV Transition Starts Early

Monday, February 23, 2009

Congress recently extended the US digital TV transition date by four months, pushing the original Feb 17th date to June 12th. However, not all stations were interested in pushing the date back. Almost 1/4 of US TV stations did make the transition on the 17th; 421 of more than 1700 TV stations made the switch on that date. Another 220 or so stations were already broadcasting all digital signals, meaning that about 36% of all TV stations are now all digital.

Most of the stations that have switched are in smaller markets. The FCC wants those in major markets like New York and Los Angeles to continue their analog broadcasts until June. In fact, the FCC reports that another 120 stations that applied for early transition were denied permission to do so.