Survey: 'TV Everywhere' Interest High, Studios Can Skip Middlemen to Maximize Profits

Survey: 'TV Everywhere' Interest High, Studios Can Skip Middlemen to Maximize Profits

Study of 1300 Online Video Viewers Indicates Robust Market For Premium Digital Content

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Digitalsmiths, the innovative multi-screen media analysis, operations and publishing technology provider announced today the results of a survey authored by The Diffusion Group (TDG) that examines premium video viewing habits.

Among other insights, the survey of 1300 regular viewers of digital video revealed:

   --  Consumers want "TV Everywhere"- style content access, and many of them       are already accessing video content on a wide variety of devices.        Users will pay an additional monthly fee for seamless access to a TV       Everywhere-type service that can be viewed on PCs and mobile devices.    --  Consumers are willing to pay to rent premium content on-demand from       studio-branded rental sites.  Such sites would eliminate the middlemen       found in the EST (Electronic Sell-Through) and VOD (Video On Demand)       models.    

The TDG whitepaper, analyzing the premium studio-branded rental site model, will be made available courtesy of Digitalsmiths in mid-October.

"I think what you see with this data is a continued upward trend in premium video viewing, combined with a clear endorsement of two profit models, namely premium studio-branded content sites and 'TV Everywhere'," said Andy Tarczon, founding partner, The Diffusion Group.

The results showed that nearly 25 percent would be willing to pay $10-15 a month for a premium "TV Everywhere" service allowing them to view premium content on their television, computer or mobile device and that a third of consumers are willing to pay studios a direct rental fee of $2-3 for the option to view a movie or television series on those same devices.

"We found these survey results to be extremely insightful and wanted to publish them as soon as possible," said Ben Weinberger, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Digitalsmiths. "This data shows that consumers would like to access and interact with content everywhere, anytime, on every device - and that they are willing to pay to do so."

The survey also asked consumers about their viewing habits and what would make them more likely to use a video site. 41 percent of respondents say that in the last month have watched video on several devices other than a computer or laptop, including mobile phones, portable video players, televisions and portable gaming players.

Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said if they have the opportunity to use advanced "Google-like" search capabilities in video to locate specific scenes, segments, dialogue, characters, actors, or locations within an online movie or television series then they will be more likely to use a particular video site. Over 41 percent also said they will be more likely to visit a video site if they have the ability to create customized clips from online films and television programs to share with friends, post to video sharing sites or create mobile ringtones - demonstrating that consumers want the ability to interact with and customize their favorite content.

About Digitalsmiths

Digitalsmiths provides the industry's only studio grade digital media analysis, operations and publishing solution with an advanced, time-based metadata framework that empowers digital media companies to distribute premium video content across multiple platforms, open up new revenue streams for film and TV assets, and build audience.

The company's flagship product, VideoSense®, powers the digital media operations, publishing and analytics for today's leading Hollywood studios, broadcasters, distributors and publishers including Warner Bros., Telepictures and TMZ.com. Digitalsmiths was named one of the "Top 45 Companies to Watch" by Dow Jones, one of the "OnHollywood Top 100" and "OnGlobal 250" by AlwaysOn, "Technology of the Year" by North Carolina's Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), and winner of the "Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards."

About TDG

The Diffusion Group is a consumer technology research and strategic marketing firm built by a team of seasoned consumer technology analysts. They have quickly grown to become one of the largest research firms dedicated to the Digital Home and connected consumer.

The Diffusion Group's mission is simple: to provide timely, actionable intelligence designed to best position new consumer technologies for rapid diffusion. They go beyond offering simple ACCESS to numbers and forecasts and assist in the APPLICATION of this market knowledge directly to the clients' needs.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Digitalsmiths

CONTACT: Tom McAlister, tom@beckmedia.com, or Sabrina Pietryga,
sabrina@beckmedia.com, both of Beck Media & Marketing, +1-310-689-7363, for
Digitalsmiths

Web Site: http://www.digitalsmiths.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment