In the first five months of 2005, 11 percent of DVD buyers reported that they planned to purchase a DVD from movies running in the theaters when it became available. But, during the same period in 2006, just 9 percent planned to do so. Why the drop? “Many people want to blame the ongoing decline in DVD sales on time-shifting with DVR, spending additional time on the Internet, and exploring emerging digital options and online subscriptions,” said Russ Crupnick, music and movies analyst for The NPD Group.  “In fact these reasons have much less to do with the slowdown.  Instead, consumers—especially lighter buyers—are simply seeing less value in purchasing DVDs of recently released movies.” According to NPD VideoWatch data for the year ending April 2006, 47 percent of all videos were rented, 30 percent were purchased from a store, 15 percent were from subscription services, 8 percent from pay-per-view (PPV) or video-on-demand (VOD) services, and only 1 percent was downloaded directly from the web.

SOURCE: The NPD Group

Wireless Growth

Modules for both wireless and wireline technologies will grow with a combined annualized growth of over 64 percent until 2011, including WPAN (wireless personal area network) devices. Excluding these, unit shipments are still expected to grow at an average rate of 32 percent per annum. Although overall Enablement revenue (comprising modules and their associated costs) is expected to grow at an annualized rate of over 26 percent, network services and managed services as a part of total M2M-PI (machine-to-machine pervasive Internet) business revenue is expected to rise to over 74 percent of the total from 67 percent in the period, according to Harbor Research. In revenue terms, this represents an annualized growth rate of over 45 percent. Overall, M2M-PI service revenue in the energy venue is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 49 percent over the period, which Harbor Research notes is a significant increate in their forecast from two years before.

SOURCE: Harbor Research

Podcasting Grows Up

Although a relatively new technology, podcasting listening and viewing has risen in the adult online population. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, 6.6 percent of the U.S. adult online population, or 9.2 million web users, have recently downloaded an audio podcast; 4.0 percent, or 5.6 million web users have recently downloaded a video podcast. These figures put the podcasting consumers on a par with those who publish blogs, 4.8 percent, and online daters, 3.9 percent. However, podcastings is not yet nearly as popular as viewing and paying bills online, 51.6 percent, or online job hunting, 24.6 percent. As typical with new technologies, young people are more likely than their older counterparts to engage in audio or video podcasting. Web users between the ages 18 and 24 are nearly twice as likely as the average web user to download audio podcasts. Video podcasts trended a little older, with 25-34 year olds indexing the highest. Among audio podcasters, Macworld is the No. 1 most-visited content site, followed by Lycos’ WiredNews (which was just sold to Conde Nast, see: Wired and WiredNews Reunite) and Slashdot. The most visited Video Podcaster site is StarTrek.com.

SOURCE: Nielsen/NetRatings

Contact the writer:ADeMonte@RedHerring.com