Give TV fans a breadth of options for watching their content, and they’ll pay for it. But service providers who make it hard for customers to watch their favorite shows when they want, or how they want, do so at their own risk.

That’s according to a global TV consumer study from Accenture, which shows that while viewing of broadcast content is growing across the board — even on traditional TV — more people are watching more channels and want to watch content on more devices, especially computers and mobile phones. About half of respondents said they are willing to pay for digital services, while 40% said they would watch ads in exchange for free content. Three quarters of all respondents said they watch the same programs on one channel, indicating brand loyalty.

“Consumers are making choices based on what they’ve tried, liked and rejected and are now selecting content and its delivery platforms,” said David Wolf, senior executive with Accenture. “Providers face an urgent need to capture consumer loyalty now — and respond to changing consumption habits — or face playing catch-up against other content delivery choices.”

The study — the Global Broadcast Consumer Survey — took the TV pulse of more than 14,000 consumers from 13 countries, including the United States. In the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, up to 71% of respondents expressed interest in mobile content. That’s compared to a high of 26% in less-developed countries.

“The modes of consumption that provide an alternative to the traditional TV experience are becoming part of everyday life rather than the occasional novelty,” Wolf said.

For more information on the study, visit www.accenture.com/broadcastsurvey.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/electronic-delivery/report-consumers-pay-and-ad-supported-digital-tv-15421

FYI

A quick check of Accenture reveals several less than savory tidbits including:

-Setting up a corporation in a tax haven country to avoid US taxes.

-Moving jobs out of the US to India and other countries.

-A huge loss of sensitive US personal/governmental data in 2007 (of which I was a victim).

Speaking of unsavory, beware of astro-turfers!!


Bogus Consumer Group To 'Educate' You On Metered Billing

Last week, Time Warner Cable shelved the expansion of their metered billing plan in reaction to unprecedented consumer backlash. However, the tone of their announcement made it very clear they'd be returning to the plan after they "educated" all of their "confused" consumers.

That education process began over the weekend, when a group called the American Consumer Institute penned a missive declaring that metered billing is a great idea for consumers, while unabashedly throwing their support behind Time Warner Cable.

Except the American Consumer Institute isn't actually a consumer group. It's an amalgamation of think tank reps pushing for corporate deregulation under the guise of consumer advocacy. A quick WhoIS notes that the ACI website is registered to Stephen Pociask, a telecom consultant and former chief economist for Bell Atlantic, who via groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, works as a public relations apparatus for paying corporate clients.

In reality, you'd be hard pressed to find a genuine consumer advocacy group that thinks Time Warner Cable's combination of low caps and high overages is a good idea. As such, groups like ACI are used by carriers to fabricate the appearance of a broad level of public support for positions that are usually not in the consumer's best interest. In recent years, ACI has been used to fight against the idea of net neutrality "on behalf of consumers."

With a number of deep-pocketed carriers (most notably Time Warner Cable and AT&T) eager to implement metered billing, the use of such "astroturf" operations isn't particularly surprising. In fact, we predicted it last week.

Of course if the arguments being made by astroturf organizations actually had broad consumer appeal, the findings therein wouldn't have to be obfuscated under the guise of consumer advocacy. Given that billions in potential new revenue is at stake, expect a significant number of these campaigns to surface throughout the year.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Bogus-Consumer-Group-To-Educate-You-On-Metered-Billing-102023

FYI

A quick check of Accenture reveals several less than savory tidbits including:

-Setting up a corporation in a tax haven country to avoid US taxes.

-Moving jobs out of the US to India and other countries.

-A huge loss of sensitive US personal/governmental data in 2007 (of which I was a victim).

I believe Accenture came out of the old defunct Arthur Andersen accounting firm.