With the sustained growth of Netflix, Hulu and other subscription VOD services, there’s a “telling shift” in the amount of time Americans spend watching TV and movies, and how they’re watching, said NPD in a Wednesday report. As the number of SVOD subscriptions continues to grow, “so too does the amount of time viewers watch television and movies on their TVs, personal computers and mobile devices,” it said. NPD canvassed 7,290 online viewers in August and found on average they were spending an additional hour weekly consuming TV and movies than they did a year earlier, it said. “Digital content continues to reshape the video landscape,” said NPD. “SVOD had the highest year-over-year increase, with almost half the population streaming video, but purchasing downloadable content is also gaining traction.” NPD said the 12 months ending in August saw an 8-percentage-point year-over-year rise in subscription video streaming and a 2-percentage-point increase in electronic sell-through, where consumers pay a one-time fee to download and keep a media file, it said. The share of U.S. consumers using only SVOD services to watch content increased to 15 percent this August from 11 percent in the same month a year earlier, it said.
Voice-controlled speakers “are probably the hottest category for this holiday” in tech, said Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry analysis, on a Monday webinar. The category is “just going to explode, and a big reason for that” is that the two biggest platforms, Google Home and Amazon Echo, “are being sold by brands that really don’t care about price,” he said. That NPD estimates U.S. household penetration of voice speakers is only 10 percent means they have “a long way to go” before reaching consumer mainstream, he said. He sees holiday tech revenue rising 0.5 percent this year, the sector’s best Q4 performance in years. “Consumers, as we’ve seen all through 2017, are not put off by higher prices,” he said.
The Display Week 2018 conference is seeking papers on augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence; wearable displays, sensors, and devices; and other areas by Dec. 1, said the Society for Information Display event organizers Saturday. Display Week is May 20-25 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Blockchain technology has policy implications that "will require close study," the Business Software Alliance Foundation reported Monday. BSA urged world governments to "start considering these issues." Last month (see 1710100061), the State Department held a blockchain forum.
The Federal Election Commission should make sure that new online political ad disclosure rules adopted Thursday have "teeth," Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn blogged. "Americans expect and deserve to know who is bankrolling the political ads that follow them around the internet," Flynn said. The group said it's urging members to file more comments in the proceeding.
Internet companies and good government groups support the Federal Election Commission online political advertising disclosure proceeding (see 17110900590), with many offering some detailed suggestions, according to the 29 comments the commission posted Wednesday. Google, Twitter and Facebook filings supported increased transparency, citing steps the companies already made to let users know the source of paid political ads. The Electronic Frontier Foundation urged forging "balanced" rules that preserve the "critical role of anonymous speech in our online political discourse."
Sonos wireless music system owners can now control Sonos speakers directly through the Pandora mobile app -- a feature that’s been available to Spotify users through Spotify Connect -- and they can control Pandora stations with voice commands via Amazon’s Alexa, said the companies Tuesday.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley subpoenaed Google Monday seeking details on how the company collects and uses consumer information data, manages competitors' search results, and provides user disclosures, he said in a Facebook video. “Consumers have a right to know what information Google is gathering,” said the Republican who announced last month he’s challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Hawley said he’s investigating whether Google violated Missouri’s consumer protection laws, and will look at complaints the company improperly used online content from rivals' websites. Hawley referenced the European Commission's $2.7 billion fine (see 1706270001) for search engine discrimination practices as impetus for his interest. Google hasn't received the subpoena but a spokesman said the company has "strong privacy protections" and continues "to operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment."
Amazon will demonstrate devices in its newly bought Whole Foods stores, including the Echo family of products, Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets, it said Thursday.
DomainTools encouraged the 92 percent of U.S. consumers planning to shop on Cyber Monday -- Nov. 27 -- to be aware of phishing and counterfeiting. Forty percent of U.S. consumers have been victims of a phishing attack, even though 91 percent are aware of spoofed websites or phishing emails from trusted brands, the cybersecurity firm said. The amount of cybercrime increased with popularity of Cyber Monday, said CEO Tim Chen. Various techniques are used to trick shoppers into visiting a fake website or clicking on a malicious link, Chen said, which could result in a shopper unintentionally sharing information or downloading ransomware. Some 119,000 unique phishing sites were detected in November 2016, targeting more than 300 brands, said Chen, citing Anti-Phishing Working Group data. The brands most likely to be spoofed this month likely correspond with the most popular online retailers, which according to the survey include Amazon (82 percent), Walmart (36 percent), and Target (20 percent), he said. Tips: be paranoid; first assume links are dangerous; navigate directly to a company's site instead of clicking on links in emails or social media; and examine URLs and email senders for typos. The shopping plan survey was Oct. 5-7 with 1,000 respondents.