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K.C. Neel
Key differences between cable and satellite subscribers may affect the market growth for new interactive TV services, according to a new study from TechTrends.
The study found that only 47% of cable customers would pay more than $100 for a fully loaded ITV set-top box, compared to more than 55% of DBS subscribers.
Satellite customers may be more interested in time shifting, according to the study, but they're less interested in personalized TV channels than their cable cousins.
TechTrends queried 10,000 U.S. satellite and cable subscribers in September on their usage of TV and the Internet.
Some 40% of both cable and satellite subscribers access the Internet via their personal computers and watch TV at the same time, and 60% of each group say they are interested in Web browsing and using e-mail through their TV sets.
When it comes to the Web, the DBS customers are more likely to surf the Net, TechTrends says.
About 50% of DirecTV customers and 54% of EchoStar Communications customers spend more than 10 hours a week accessing the Internet. At the same time, only 46% of cable customers in the study say they access the Net that much each week.
Half of DBS customers in the study (51% of DirecTV and 48% of EchoStar) watch more than 20 hours of TV a week, while only 38% of the cable customers say they sit in front of the tube more than 20 hours a week.
"To win this market," says TechTrends' research director Laurence Bloom, "companies need to understand that certain consumer segments have very different preferences and attitudes toward interactive television. These companies must also know how consumers differ, why these differences exist and how they can determine the success of a given product or service."
TechTrends is also in the process of producing three consumer reports that center on digital set-tops, TV-based e-commerce, interactive TV applications and services, price sensitivity and TV programming preferences. Preliminary findings show that 48% of consumers are interested in TV-based e-commerce, but many remain concerned about security issues. Some 55% of consumers would prefer to buy their set-tops at a retail store rather than rent it from a cable or satellite provider.
Forty-three percent of those surveyed would pay at least $3 a month for video-on-demand movies, and more than a third of the respondents expect to buy a digital camera during the next year.
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