Demographics of Kindle and Other eReader Users

I’ve done some preliminary internet research to examine the audience demographics of Kindle and other eReader users.  This is a new space for the media, and lots of newspapers and other content providers are examining how exactly to “play” in this space.  Here are some snippets of the research I have turned up: 

Main Types of eReaders: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers 

• Amazon Kindle
• Sony eReader
• Barnes & Noble nook
• Apple iPad, iPhone
• many many more

Familiarity with eReader Devices 

http://blogs.forrester.com/consumer_product_strategy/2009/08/forrester-new-ereader-data-suggests-amazon-vulnerability.html 

 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Demographics of eReader Users 

http://internet2go.net/news/data-and-forecasts/kids-mobile-phones-and-ereaders-0 

Mediamark says there are approximately 2.1 million US adults who own eReaders. The firm said that owners are “more likely than the average adult to be well-educated and have high incomes . . .They are also far more likely to be heavy Internet users.” This of course makes sense, given that these are largely luxuries or “frivilous” devices right now.  

(More eReader demographic info available after the break…) 

Over half a million people watch Olympics Opening Ceremonies on WFLA!

Over half a million Tampa Bay adults tuned into WFLA to watch the 2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies on Friday, February 12th.  At our highest rated point of the night (9:00pm), 634,000 people were watching WFLA!  This was the highest rated Opening Ceremony for a non-United States based Winter Olympics in Tampa since before 1994.

The Opening Ceremony on WFLA averaged 503,000 total viewers, up 15% over the last Winter Olympics games in Torino.

In addition, over 134,000 stayed up late with WFLA and went on to watch our late news at 12:15am.   Even at this late start time, the 3.7 / 15 adult 25-54 rating for our late news is one of the highest ratings we have seen for the late news in the past two years!

The Olympics continued strong throughout the weekend.  For the past two nights of primetime Olympic coverage, WFLA has averaged 449,000 viewers each night, making us the #1 Tampa station in prime and the #1 station for late news for the past three nights in a row!

Winter Olympics Premieres Tonight, Only on WFLA News Channel 8

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics premieres tonight, only on WFLA News Channel 8! Occurring bi-annually, the Olympics are always the highest rated television broadcasting events of the year. The Olympic Games have a unique power to capture and engage a valuable audience – often an audience that may not normally watch our television station and cannot be reached very easily via other traditional avenues of advertising.   These are consumers who have the disposable income to buy your products or service.

Here in Tampa, WFLA News Channel 8’s coverage of the primetime Olympics usually delivers more audience than competitors WTSP, WTVT and WFTS combined. During the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics 2008, NBC won EVERY evening in Primetime in household ratings and BOTH adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 demographics during all 17 consecutive nights of the games. 

The Winter Olympics airs this year from Friday, February 12th through Sunday, February 28th, 2010.

Watch the attached video to see how WFLA has created custom news promos to entice our viewers to continue to watch our late news after the Olympics.

Tampa Bay Sports Commission Announces Media Partnership with WFLA’s 8 Prime

OUR TEAM Network announced today that they have signed an agreement with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission to provide highlights, interviews and exposure to events secured by the Commission. 

The initial programming will focus on their regional and national high school events and will be featured on a weekly basis in OUR TEAM Network’s High School Sports Report currently airing on 8Prime and Sun Sports Wednesday and Thursday evenings. 

The partnership will provide a unique platform for cross promotional opportunities with the Sports Commission and OUR TEAM on 8Prime and Sun Sports, plus ancillary activities on-site at Tampa Bay Sports Commission events. 

8 Prime is WFLA-TV News Channel 8’s digital subchannel. OUR TEAM Network is a Tampa based production company and syndicator of sports and community programming. OUR TEAM and 8 Prime have partnered to launch a brand new sports and community channel dedicated to local sports and events. The programming will be a mixture of weekly half-hour shows and specials as well as event coverage. The primary focus will be celebrating amateur athletes and the community organizations that support them. Show highlights and viewer participation can be found at http://www.ourteamsportsnet.com/.

Key Economic Indicators for Tampa Bay Market – December 2009

 The Florida Communications Group Research Department tracks key economic indicators for the Tampa Bay market. Highlights from the December 2009 report  include:

•  Unemployment Rates – unemployment continues to be high in the Tampa Bay market – ending the year with a 12.4% rate (higher than both Florida 11.8% and the US 10.0% unemployment rates).

• Home Sales – continue to show signs of improvement and were up 27.7% in Hillsborough County compared to 2008. Sales continue to be driven by low interest rates and lowered home prices.

• New auto sales were down by -25.4% in the Tampa DMA and by -29.0 in Hillsborough County. However new auto sales were up for the months of November and December of 2009 also showing some signs of improvement.

• Taxable retail sales (for the first 9 months of 2009 – most current available) were down by -12.9% in the total Tampa DMA and by -13.6% in Hillsborough County compared to the same period of 2008.

WFLA’s Access Programs Entertainment Tonight and Extra Up 38% Over Last Year

WFLA’s entertainment programs Entertainment Tonight  and Extra are delivering a high level of growth since the beginning of the year. On average, 116,000 adults have been viewing WFLA’s access programs (Monday-Friday 7:00-8:00pm) in January 2010. That’s more than 9,000 more people than we’ve seen all year.

 WFLA is also #1 station in this time period for the key Adults 25-54 demographic, delivering over 25% more ratings than its nearest competitor.

January 2010 Access (M-F 7-8pm)
Adult 25-54 Ratings Comparison
Station	Programming	Rating	Growth over Jan’09
WFLA	ET / Extra	3.3 / 9	38%
WTVT	TMZ / Insider	2.6 / 7	-10%
WTOG	Two & Half Men	2.5 / 7	38%
WFTS	Wheel Fortune/Jeopardy	1.4 / 4	8%
WTSP	Dr. Phil	1.0 / 3	No change

 

 

Bargain Hunters Start with Newspaper and Magazine Ads

According to a recent Adweek Media/ Harris Poll, 23% of adult Americans believe that newspaper and magazine advertisements are where they can find the best bargains. 18% believe online advertisements are most likely to help them find the best bargains. 10% say direct mail and 12% catalogs, 11% television commercials, and just 2% say radio. And, 34% of Americans believe the type of ad makes no difference when they are looking for the best bargain.

When looking for the best bargains, different age groups have different ideas of where to look:

• 18-34 year olds are more likely to say online ads (22%) and television commercials (17%) are the best places to go
• 35-44 year olds go online (26%)
• 24% of those 44-54 and 33% of those 55 and older say newspaper and magazine advertisements those are media most likely to help them find the best bargain

Advertising Most Likely to Help Find Bargain – Age (Base: All U.S. adults; % of Category Respondents)
	Age
	Total	18-34	35-44	45-54	55+
Newspaper/Magazine advertisements	23%	15%	16%	24%	33%
Online advertisements	18	22	26	17	12
Direct mail and catalogs	12	13	13	14	10
Television commercials	11	17	12	8	7
Radio	2	2	3	< .5	1
None- the type of ad makes no difference	34	31	31	36	36
Source: Harris Polls, January 2010

Among the genders, women are more likely than men to say newspaper and magazine advertisements, and direct mail and catalogs are more likely to help them find a bargain. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to say online advertisements are more likely to help them find a bargain.

There is also an interesting educational difference in the media people believe can help them find the best bargains:

• One-quarter of those with a high school education or less say newspaper and magazine advertisements are more likely to help them find a bargain, compared to 20% of those with at least a college degree.
• 29% with at least a college degree believe online advertisements are more likely to help them find a bargain compared to 12% of those with a high school education or less

Advertising Most Likely to Help Find Bargain – Gender & Education (Base: All U.S. adults; % of Category Respondents)
		Gender		Education
	Total	Men	Women	HS or less	Some college	College grad
Newspaper/Magazine advertisements	23%	22%	24%	25%	23%	20%
Online advertisements	18	21	16	12	18	29
Direct mail and catalogs	12	11	14	12	12	12
Television commercials	11	12	10	12	12	8
Radio	2	2	1	3	1	1
None- the type of ad makes no difference	34	32	35	36	33	31
Source: Harris Polls, January 2010

The report concludes that, while newspaper ads are still slightly ahead of others among all adults when it comes to bargain hunting, online is not far behind. And, online ads lead newspaper and magazine ads, as a source of information about bargains, among younger, better educated consumers, who are much more attractive to most advertisers.

Note: This blog is a repost from the Center for Media Research Research Brief.

Year over year Tampa Area Auto Sales are down, but December showed some signs of growth

In the past couple of months, we’ve observed a nice reversal of the declines in the automotive industry in Tampa.  From January to October this year, car sales were down any where from 20%-50% throughout the DMA.  In November, car sales were either flat or showing small growth year over year in the DMA.

December started showing some very nice growth patterns. Overall car sales in the DMA were up 5.9% over last December and new car sales were up a stunning 20.5%. In fact, automotive dealers sold more new cars in December 2009 than they have since September 2008.

In December 2009 (Compared to December 2008):

• Hillsborough County showed some growth (2.7%) in total new and used cars sold, with double digit growth in new cars sold (24.1%).
• Pinellas County was up 9.7% in total cars and up 23.1% in new cars.
• Pasco County had a 12.1% growth in new cars sold, and -8.6% declines in used cars sold.
• Hernando showed declines in both new  (-20.7%) and used (-15.5%) cars sold
• Highlands County showed some growth (2.7%) in total new and used cars sold, with double digit growth in cars sold (36.2%)

 Below the break  is the year-over-year (2009 vs. 2008) percent change comparison:

Rain or Shine, FCG Covers Gasparilla

As the rainy day forced many Tampa Bay residents to abandon their Gasparilla Parade watching plans, more people than ever relied on parade coverage from WFLA, TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune.  

Our television crew bravely fought the rain to provide live coverage of the parade on WFLA.  Even though the broadcast was cut short due to rain-related technical problems, our WFLA crew was rewarded with huge ratings. Nearly 100,000 people watched the parade broadcast, up 60% over last year! 

On TBO.com, Gasparilla coverage ranged from news articles to audience polls to user generated photo and video galleries to mobile text message alerts.

TBOExtra.com featured a special section entirely devoted to Gasparilla. This section delivered nearly 49,000 page views in January. Other Gasparilla-themed content across the site delivered over 109,000 page views over the weekend. 

 We also delivered Gasparilla-related text message alerts throughout the weekend to nearly 3,000 mobile subscribers, our highest number of subscribers ever.