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January 19, 2006 | Greg Ness: Radio

Why does this not surprise me: Google is now in the radio business. It made news all over the place yesterday. If, as so often is said, content is king, then Google is not only king…it is quickly rising to the rank of emperor. Google gives access to a world of content and now they are starting to control the content channels, too. Maybe they’ll call it Roogle or Radioo.

January 13, 2006 | Greg Ness: Online Video Advertising To Grow Nearly 300 Percent

The increase in broadband penetration to U.S. homes, combined with the rapidly increasing demand for interactive marketing services, has created huge growth potential for online video advertising. According to an eMarketer report, online video advertising will grow nearly 300 percent from 2005 to 2007. The report also shows by 2009 online video advertising will grow nearly 700 percent over 2005!

December 28, 2005 | Greg Ness: Radio War Heats Up

The fractionalization of former mass media empires continues as evidenced by what is happening in the radio industry. It is no longer just the local antenna-based signal broadcasters who are in the game. Internet radio is a fast-growing way for consumers to listen to what they want and not have their choices limited by radio signal coverage patterns. According to Arbitron, the online broadcast audience in the U.S. had already reached 51 million people by January of 2004.

Satellite radio also has some big momentum and there is a war on for new listeners between XM and Sirius. That satellite radio war will probably heat up even more with radio publicity king, Howard Stern, moving his show to Sirius on January 9. It is predicted there will be 35.6 million satellite radio listeners by 2010.

December 20, 2005 | Greg Ness: New 2009 HDTV Deadline Set

OK…we are going to have high definition television, the question, as always, is when. According to a story in the New York Times, the House of Representatives has mandated February 17, 2009, as the date that broadcasters must give up their old analog licenses and start broadcasting a high definition signal. Of course, the Senate still has to approve the measure, so it is not written in stone yet.

Be warned. There have been many past deadlines that were extended, and extended again. This story discusses what, I think, was the first May 2002 deadline for the HDTV switchover. At the rate the transition is moving, the first HDTVs I bought will have worn out by the time I am actually able to use them for viewing any extensive HDTV programming.

September 21, 2005 | Greg Ness: E-tailing Is Accelerating

Online retail sales will double in the next five years according to a new report by Forrester Research. The full story is here on CNET. There have been a number of recent reports and articles that have highlighted the tremendous growth of e-business in the B2B sector, but this study focuses specifically on the online retail sector.

The annual average growth rate for online retail sales is expected to be 14 percent per year with total online sales reaching nearly $330 billion by 2010. Some sectors will see even faster growth including: health and beauty products, small appliances and travel.

August 31, 2005 | Greg Ness: The Computer Is Growing as A Key Entertainment Appliance.

Most people are familiar with the ubiquity of computers in the work and home environment as tools for productivity or as rich information appliances. However, a recent BURST! study that surveyed 13,000 people, 14 years of age and older, demonstrated the computer’s growing role as a key entertainment appliance also. According to the press release from BURST!, “Entertainment that used to be accessed on separate appliances is increasingly being played on the computer.” Here are some numbers from the study in the younger demographic groups (under 24 years of age):

July 12, 2005 | Greg Ness: Let Me Have Your Undivided Attention

What would all marketers like to have? For one thing, they would like to have their customers’ or prospects’ undivided attention. However, that seems to be a tall order these days. According to a new Simultaneous Media Usage Study, highlighted by the Center for Media Research, getting someone’s undivided attention is difficult.

The study, conducted by BIGresearch, polled over 12,000 random respondents that were representative of the Census 2000 population. It clearly shows that most people multitask when “consuming” media. In fact, 70 percent of 25-34 year olds say they simultaneously access one or more media on a regular or occasional basis. The 55+ age group multitasks the least, but even 60 percent of that group says they simultaneously use two or more media on a regular or occasional basis.

June 20, 2005 | Phil Leitch: Wikitorial, I hardly knew ya

Michael Kinsley’s experiment using a wiki for the LA Times editorial is over, at least for now. When I first heard of the idea my initial thought was that it wasn’t a very good one. A brave experiment in publishing, definitely. But a wiki seems the polar opposite to an editorial page. Wouldn’t adding a simple comments section or a discussion board work much better? I get the feeling that Kinsley wanted to create some buzz for his paper and latched onto a hot buzzword, mixed it into the editorials and hoped for the best. Others have suggested that the experiment was a success due to the attention it has attracted. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out and how long they’re willing to keep trying.

The Long Tail, a wonderful blog I found over the weekend, has two good entries on the subject.