The US consumer electronics industry is ready to start growing again in 2010. Following an estimated 7.7% decline in revenues between 2008 and 2009, to $165 billion, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) forecasts a slight uptick (0.6%) in 2010, to $166 billion in revenues.
Internet-enabled televisions (IETVs), which connect directly to the Internet without the use of a media adapter, are one of the hot new products Americans will be buying, along with continued uptake of HDTVs and DVR services. Americans are watching more TV than ever, and also more online video, according to Nielsen.
“Marketers must start planning for the convergence of TV and the Web, as it gathers steam into 2010 and beyond,” said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “The Digital Home: Emerging Trends in TV/PC Viewership.”
Over the past decade, consumers have upgraded their home networks from data-centric to multimedia-centric, to better accommodate their desire for digital entertainment. And thanks to the global boom in broadband access, iSuppli Corporation predicts worldwide shipments of devices with Internet capability will nearly quintuple by 2013.
“Consumers are ready—and available, convenient technologies such as smartphones and wireless home networks make such convergence mainstream, and inevitable,” Ms. Phillips added. “The generalizations of lean back/lean forward interaction still fit today, but as TVs and PCs converge into one living room, viewer behaviors may change.”
Still, television is the clear winner for watching video in US households, and no research survey suggests Americans will abandon their “boob tube” for YouTube. Total time spent watching online videos ranges between 1% and 2% of Internet users’ overall monthly video consumption, according to various estimates, while TV gets 98.5% of all video viewers’ time, according to Nielsen. But online and mobile viewership, along with time spent on the Internet in general, are growing quickly.
“For marketers thinking about advertising to two audiences at once—those watching online video on their TV sets and consumers streaming TV shows and movies on their PCs—the solutions are more nuanced,” noted Ms. Phillips. “The medium on which content is viewed influences the viewer’s expectations of advertising—from length of commercial to timing—as much as the content does.”
The full report, “The Digital Home: Emerging Trends in TV/PC Viewership” also answers these key questions:
- What is the status of the digital home today? What technologies are the most prevalent?
- How common is multitasking between TV and the Internet?
- If consumers just watch YouTube on their televisions—how do brands advertise around that?