Free TV Still Dominates Media Time

Lots of new media and screens, but 1930's technology still dominates people's media time - free TV.

This survey represents another data point in the gorilla-sized database supporting the proposition that people prefer their media - including music - to be free and they accept the advertising that makes their free media possible.

GROUND-BREAKING STUDY OF VIDEO VIEWING FINDS YOUNGER BOOMERS CONSUME MORE VIDEO MEDIA THAN ANY OTHER GROUP

Traditional Television Remains “800 Pound Gorilla”
In Video Media Arena

NEW YORK, NY – March 26, 2009 – A pioneering study conducted on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence (CRE) by Ball State University's Center for Media Design (CMD) and Sequent Partners dispels several popular notions about video media use, finding that younger baby boomers (age 45-54) consume the most video media while confirming that traditional "live" television remains the proverbial "800-pound gorilla" in the video media arena. (See appendix for more detail.)

Results of the $3.5 million year-long Video Consumer Mapping (VCM) study, in which participants were directly observed throughout the day by CMD researchers, were released to the media industry today by representatives of the CRE, Nielsen, Ball State and the analytical firm Sequent.

Using handheld smart keyboards equipped with a custom media collector program developed by Ball State, the observers recorded — in 10-second increments — consumer exposure to visual content presented on any of four categories of screens: traditional television (including live TV as well as DVD/VCR and DVR playback); computer (including Web use, e-mail, instant messaging and stored or streaming video); mobile devices such as a Blackberry or iPhone (including Web use, text messaging and mobile video); and "all other screens" (including display screens in out-of-home environments, in-cinema movies and other messaging and even GPS navigation units).

All told, the VCM study generated data covering more than three-quarters of a million minutes or a total of 952 observed days. This is the largest and most extensive observational study of media usage ever conducted.

Key findings

In addition to the revelation that consumers in the 45-54 age group average the most daily screen time (just over 9 1/2 hours), the VCM study found the average for all other age groups to be "strikingly similar" at roughly 8 1/2 hours — although the composition and duration of devices used by the respective groups throughout the day varied.

The research also found that:

• Contrary to some recent popular media coverage suggesting that more Americans are rediscovering "free TV" via the Internet, computer video tends to be quite small with an average time of just two minutes (a little more than 0.5 percent) a day.
• Despite the proliferation of computers, video-capable mobile phones and similar devices, TV in the home still commands the greatest amount of viewing, even among those ages 18-24. Thus, in the eyes of the researchers, this appears to dispute a common belief that Internet video and mobile phone video exposure among that group (and the next one up, age 25-34) were significant in 2008.
• Even in major metropolitan areas where commute times can be long and drive-time radio remains popular, computer use has replaced radio as the No. 2 media activity. Radio is now No. 3 and print media fourth.
• TV users were exposed to, on average, 72 minutes per day of TV ads and promos — again dispelling a commonly held belief that modern consumers are channel-hopping or otherwise avoiding most of the advertising in the programming they view.
• Early DVR owners spent much more time with DVR playback than newer DVR owners. At the same time, DVR playback was even more likely than live TV to be the sole medium.
• "Environmental" exposure outside the home, while still relatively small at just 2.8 percent of total video consumption today, could nearly double during the next few years. Currently, measurement of these screens is only just beginning with programs such as Nielsen On-Location Media and Nielsen Online, though they may be given more importance soon given their growing and strategic advertising role.

Detail makes the difference

"This landmark research study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how consumers go about accessing content across all platforms within the context of their daily lives," said CRE Media Consumption and Engagement Committee Chair, Shari Anne Brill. “It also considerably advances the Council's thinking regarding audience measurement priorities. Nothing of this magnitude has ever been attempted before and we expect that our entire industry will benefit from this game-changing work for years to come."

Mike Hess, CRE Chair, added, “The scope of the study was too big and the cost too prohibitive for any one company to undertake on its own. A project of this magnitude clearly required a group effort. In addition to the compelling findings of the study, I am proud of the way CRE members from more than 35 different industry organizations collaborated as an independent council to generate today’s groundbreaking learning.”

"What differentiates this study from all other attempts to measure video exposure at the consumer level is its scale, the range of media covered and the fact that it is focused on consumers first and the media second. It’s not a study about TV or the Web or any other medium – it’s about how, where, how often and for how long consumers are exposed to all media," said Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research for Ball State's CMD, which was selected to lead the project, in large part, because of its previous success with the influential Middletown Media Studies I and II.

An important finding of those earlier efforts, Bloxham explained, concerned the uncertainty of more historical methods of measurement and, in particular, various forms of self-report.

"Among the things we learned from those experiences is that people generally cannot report accurately how much time they spend with media," said Bloxham. "Some media tend to be over-reported whereas others tend to be under-reported – sometimes to an alarming extent. Clearly, that kind of variance puts in question one's ability to draw meaningful conclusions, and it convinced us that the observational method is the only real way to achieve accurate and reliable results."

Added Paul Donato, Nielsen’s Chief Research Officer, “These new results are consistent with previous Nielsen studies that have found that video consumption has never been higher and that television continues to dominate the media landscape. Nielsen applauds the CRE, CMD and Sequent for conducting this research, which will help us make more informed decisions on how to measure media consumption."

Developing Audio Ads at imeem

I have written a number of times that audio is the proper and natural ad format for advertising supported downloaded music.

Below is a re-post of a piece that Sachin Rekhi, wrote for the blog http://andrewchenblog.com/. Sachin was a founder of anywhere.fm and then worked at imeem after it acquired anywhere.

I agree with everything in Sachin's piece. However, it just scratches the surface of what is possible with audio advertising in downloaded music.

Designing and Testing an Ad Product: 5 Lessons Learned from imeem’s Audio Ads
By Sachin Rekhi

Introduction
In its search to find the most effective way to monetize user’s time spent listening to music, imeem has become one of the early innovators in the nascent online audio advertising space.

From the process of designing, testing, and iterating on imeem’s unique audio ad product, I wanted to highlight 5 key lessons learned that are applicable not only in developing imeem’s ad offering, but in general to designing any innovative ad product.

Lesson 1: Align the ad product with your site’s user experience
Lesson 2: The easy way is often not the best
Lesson 3: Pick the right metrics to optimize
Lesson 4: Make sure to look at qualitative feedback
Lesson 5: Iterate on the sell in addition to the ad product

Align the ad product with your site’s user experience

imeem had classically employed a variety of advertising strategies to monetize users, including display ad inventory that was filled by our direct sales team through high impact brand campaigns as well as dozens of ad networks we used to fill our glut of remnant inventory.

Yet we knew with our audio consumption experience, we were creating a new kind of available ad inventory which could be much more effective at reaching our users than display ads since audio-based advertising better aligned with the activity users were most engaged with on the site. With terrestrial radio ads still generating $21B in revenue, there was clearly an opportunity to shift some of those dollars online and provide a better experience for both users and advertisers.

The easy way is often not the best
Online audio ads are not a new concept. They have been used by a variety of major online streaming outlets, including AOL Radio, CBS Radio, Live 365, and Yahoo LaunchCast. However, the initial incarnation of audio ads took the easy way out. They typically ran 30 second audio ad spots which they obtained from ad agencies that re-purposed their terrestrial radio creative for online audio ads. This made it very easy for agencies to get their feet wet with online audio advertising with no additional creative costs. While this may work for traditional online streaming services, the new generation of music streamers like imeem, Last.FM, and Pandora would not be willing to run such long audio ads out of fear of losing their user base.

So what was needed was an audio ad unit custom tailored for personalized streaming services. And that’s what we ended up creating at imeem. We came up with an 8 second audio ad spot that would advertise a national brand and show a standard IAB medium rectangle (300×250) banner on top of the player during the audio ad playback. The user could click-through the medium rectangle to the advertiser’s landing page like classic banner ads. We started with a very low frequency of a maximum of 2 ads per user per hour.

However, this was far from easy, as it required imeem to develop in-house production capabilities for the 8 second audio creative, as agencies never had existing creative and were rarely willing to develop another set of creative themselves. While this was an undertaking, it is often necessary to bear the cost of innovation to deliver the right ad product to your audience.

Pick the right metrics to optimize
In order to understand the effectiveness of any ad unit, it’s important to systematically test it. The first step in designing a successful experiment was determining what were the metrics that we were testing. We knew that we were trying to satisfy two customer segments with this ad product: advertisers and users. For advertisers, there were a variety of ad-related performance metrics that we could measure. However, we decided to start by measuring the advertiser metrics that ad agencies had classically been most interested in. We wanted to determine whether we could make advertisers happy through the performance of these classic metrics, since trying to educate ad agencies on the importance of new metrics is an uphill battle that would significantly decrease your ability to sell the unit. Thus the initial advertiser metrics we tracked were click-through rate of the tethered medium rectangle banner as well as aided and un-aided brand recall as measured through quantitative surveys administered by our research partner Dynamic Logic.

For users, what we wanted to understand was whether introducing audio ads onto our site would decrease the amount they used the site. While we tracked page views, visits, session length, etc, we focused on number of songs played per user during the life of the experiment as the most important proxy for site usage.

Make sure to look at qualitative feedback
In addition to measuring quantitative metrics, it’s equally important to collect qualitative feedback from real users. The iModerate online focus groups we conducted ended up being very enlightening and allowed us to derive interesting insights of consumer motivations and behaviors that looking at the quantitative data alone wouldn’t provide.

For example, though initially we were significantly worried that the introduction of audio ads would cause users to flock to our ad-free competitors, we learned through interviews that many of our young users had developed a strong affinity with imeem, understood the need for imeem to monetize, and were eager to suggest ad verticals they would be most interested in hearing to improve the product.

Iterate on the sell in addition to the ad product
An area that’s as important to iterate on as the ad product itself is how you sell or position this offering in the marketplace. Selling innovative ad products is actually the greatest challenge in the process. Anytime you introduce a new ad unit, significant education is required for brand marketers and agencies to help them to understand the importance, effectiveness, and promise of this new medium.

Our sales planning team iterated many times on the pitch to advertisers for the audio ad product as well as how we reported on ad unit performance at the end of each campaign. This was regularly refined based on feedback we elicited from our advertising partners.

Conclusion
While many have claimed the death of online advertising in light of the recession, its important to remind ourselves that ad dollars are still being spent online. Now is an opportunity to innovate on the ad products that we offer advertisers to show greater value, brand awareness, and performance. We must keep in mind that ad agencies are eager to find better ways to spend ad dollars, as they are equally interested in showing results to their brand clients to hold on to their ad budgets. We should partner with our advertisers and users to find the most efficient way to leverage online advertising to monetize our sites.

Music as Mood Moderator and Targeting Variable

This MTV survey (via Ypulse) provides more evidence of the strong connection between emotional state and music choice and consumption. There is a lot of scholarly research on music choice as a mood moderator.

This connection has yet to be exploited as an advertising targeting and receptivity variable.

The Top 12 Ways Young People Relieve Stress

Posted by anastasia on 04-08-2009

The folks over at MTV Sticky (i.e. Viacom Brand Solutions International) sent me their very cool Teen Age Clicks: Understanding Global Youth Culture report, which is packed with interesting info and stats. They gave me permission to excerpt a few sections for you on Ypulse. We all know that youth are busier and more stressed than ever before — according to the report, "stress is the invisible global constant afflicting youth of all ages in all markets." Here's how they're managing around the world….

1. Music Rules. The number one way young people cope with stress is to listen to music — 65% of all youth globally do this.

2. The Sun Always Shines On TV. In at number two, 48% of kids watch TV to relieve stress. 60% of youth globally lie down to watch TV. But….don't watch CNN. MTV's research proves the more news kids watch, the more stressed they become.

3. Talk To Me. Third is talking to friends (not face to face). The explosion in the new tools available to connect to friends has seemingly come at just the right time for a generation seeking moral support. That said, it is existing friends that provide the most support, rather than strangers, the only nation likely to turn to help from online strangers in significant numbers are the Chinese.

4. Sleep On It. Fourth most popular method is sleeping. However the quality of modern teens' sleep in question, "junk sleep" caused by over stimulated minds fueled by in-room gadgetry is the new "junk food." 40 percent of teens claim to be tired during the day.

5. Just Like A Prayer. Prayer is only the 14th most popular form of stress relief globally, but MTV has it at number 5 because statistically, young people who pray more are less stressed. Stressed youth on average pray 3.7 times per week. Relaxed youth pray 8.8 times a week.

6. Family Affair. Family represents a key source of love and self esteem. 43% of kids in the U.S. consult family when stressed. Generally young people in developing markets are more likely to turn to family. However, they are also the markets where parents are often the most absent. The average Mexican 8-15 year old spends 2.9 hours at home alone, compared to British kids who spend less than 45 minutes.

7. Big Boys Do Cry. Americans are the most likely nation to cry when stressed. They are also the most likely to play computer games (39%).

8. Thrills, Pills & Bellyaches. British are the most likely nation of youths to drink (43%) when stressed…They also eat a lot of junk food (40%) and do drugs (11%).

9. C'est a moi que tu paries? French are the most likely youth to get aggressive (42%) and have sex (16%).

10. Worried Sick. Swedish youth are the most likely to deal with stress through eating disorders. 23% make themselves sick after eating whilst 18% claim to diet or stop eating.

11. Shop Hard. Play Hard. The Chinese are most likely to shop to relieve stress (42%), exercise/play to relieve stress (46%) and are the most likely to write a journal/blog (27%).

12. Pass The Kleenex Henrik. Danish are the most likely to masturbate.

Qtrax, Yet Again

This is such a poorly managed company this "relaunch" means nothing. The company will be gone for good soon.

Qtrax Relaunches In The U.S.
April 10, 2009 - Digital and Mobile

By Antony Bruno, Denver

Qtrax, the ad-supported P2P music download service, has finally relaunched in the U.S., more than a year after it originally proposed to go live.

The subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies originally unveiled their service at the international music tradeshow Midem last year, but it quickly closed down after it turned out the company hadn't finalized the major label agreements it said it had. Since then, Qtrax has signed licensing deals with all four major labels, and a number of independents.

The service requires users to download a Web-based media player that lets users browse and play songs, as well as displays ads in return for free downloads. Songs downloaded are not compatible with the iPod or any Mac products at this time.

The Qtrax relaunch comes just weeks after another ad-supported music download service - SpiralFrog - closed down after it could not meet its debt obligations. The SpiralFrog situation has cast a shadow of doubt on the viability of ad-supported music download services at a time when ad-supported streaming services like imeem and Spotify are taking center stage.

The cost of licensing music to download is far greater than the cost of licensing music to stream on demand. Even the less expensive streaming services are facing financial hardships, as the rates the get from advertisers are not enough to cover the cost of their music licenses.

But Qtrax maintains its business model is different than SpiralFrog's. The former CEO of SpiralFrog-Robin Kent, who left the company a year before it went under-serves as an advisor for Qtrax. Jason Berman, former head of the RIAA and IFPI, leads its advisory board.

It plans an international launch in about a month.

Consumers Accept Ads for Free Music

People will accept ads in exchange for free music. This recent study is consistent with past research.

UK consumers do not mind online ads

By Maija Palmer, technology correspondent

Published: April 5 2009 22:49 Last updated: April 5 2009 22:49

Brits are happy to watch advertising on the internet or their mobile phones if this means they will get videos, music or other content for free, a survey has found.

About 60 per cent of people polled by KPMG, the professional services group, said they would rather watch advertising on the internet in return for free content, rather than pay for it. Only 16 per cent of consumers said they would rather pay for content and avoid ads.

Even on mobile phones, 40 per cent of consumers said they would watch adverts in exchange for free music, while 28 per cent said they would do so in exchange for access to free instant messaging.

The figures send a strong message to companies that advertising, rather than subscription-based business models, are likely to work for internet and mobile content businesses in the UK.

“This willingness to view adverts in exchange for free content is good news for advertisers and is perhaps a pointer in the ongoing debate over whether advertising or subscription is the right revenue model,” said Tudor Aw, partner at KPMG.

A number of advertising-supported internet music services have recently been struggling, as the economic downturn forces advertisers to retreat. SpiralFrog and Ruckus, two advertising supported music services based in the US, shut down earlier this year.

However, the KPMG study indicates that advertising on music sites would reach a willing audience.

When consumers did pay for content on mobile phones, they were most willing to spend on music and navigation tools. Some 34 per cent of UK consumers polled by KPMG had purchased music on their phones in the past year, the highest percentage in Europe.

UK consumers were reluctant, however, to pay for online books, online photo storage or social networking tools for their mobile phones.

“When considering how best to monetise mobile services, it is important for mobile service providers to be aware that there are notable differences in how consumers wish to access different mobile services,” said Mr Aw. “Social networking – another big area of focus for mobile providers – is not a service people are prepared to pay for.”

Use of mobile banking services, meanwhile, remains in the doldrums because of security concerns. Some 67 per cent of British consumers said they were uncomfortable with using their phone for any financial transactions.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Ad-Supported Music, Moral Hazard and Buggy Whips

The article below is a re-post from billboard.biz. I am not sure that it says much that is new but I am bringing it to your attention because it has strong undertones of my buggy whip posts, especially the last paragraph.

Analysis: Ad-Supported Music And Moral Hazard
March 31, 2009 - Digital and Mobile

By Glenn Peoples, Nashville

As ad-supported music services increase in popularity and falter financially, content owners need to consider the consequences of their negotiations. Lowering rates may provide short-term relief, but doing so may limit the creation of better products and business models. Rather than save a distressed music service and endorse its current business, labels may want to encourage evolution by keeping rates unchanged.

The term that applies to this case is one that has been used often during the credit crisis: moral hazard. When a company is saved rather than face the consequences for its poor decisions, it will have less incentive to change its behavior to avert similar failures in the future. Detroit automakers have been a common example. If they had been forced to make wholesale changes rather than take the courses of action that have lead them to seek multiple bailouts, G.M., Ford and Chrysler may not be in such poor shape today. By not allowing natural market forces to punish the automakers, the government, it can be argued, has brought moral hazard into the picture.

Talk about rates charged by labels hit another crescendo last week. Last.fm's plan to adopt a subscription model in some counties, debate and coverage continues at both the Last.fm blog and message board. Discussion about Imeem started with a report at TechCrunch that claimed the online streaming service was rumored to be in "serious trouble" and owed creditors upward of $30 million. Wired reported Imeem was hoping to renegotiate some its deals with labels. Then a source confirmed to MediaMemo that Imeem had indeed restructured its deals with "some of the big music labels," one specifically being Universal Music Group.

Both events reignited debate about rates charged by content owners to ad-supported music streaming sites. Throughout much of the blogosphere, online news sites and message boards, the common sentiment is that labels charge onerous rates that prohibit the growth of the streaming segment of the market. The drop in funding for music startups is evidence venture capitalists see costs, not business models, as the problem. For the sake of healthy debate, these notions need to be flipped on their heads.

An unspoken assumption that must be challenged is that these troubled music services have the correct business model in the first place. If a profit cannot be attained, one should question whether or not a service is maximizing the value of its assets and user base. If an advertisement model does not bring in enough to pay for the goods being offered, the validity of that model should be contested. If users value the service but refuse to pay a small subscription fee, one should ask if a different product should be offered.

In most instances, a business prices the good or service in a way that will help cover its costs and, eventually, allow for a profit. If the wholesale rate is too high, the retail price will be too high and sales will be disappointing. To improve sales, a supplier can drop the wholesale price so retailers may drop the prices they charge. The supplier will lower the wholesale price to a level that still allows it to make a profit. Any one retailer may not be so successful. Its customer service, shopping experience, advertising or merchandising may be inferior to those of its competitors. In such a case, the onus is on the retailer to make the necessary changes.

The world of free, ad-supported services is different than the classic supplier-retailer example. There is no price through which to manipulate consumer behavior (although one can reduce the number of users by charging a fee). This makes it more difficult to ascertain if the wholesale price or other factors are behind the service's losses. Record labels are currently in this predicament.

Another unchallenged assumption that underlines nearly all debate is that Imeem at al have the right to exist. That's just not the case. Unless labels act in a way that limits competition - and uniform rates for its songs do not do this - they have no legal or moral duty to reduce their rates to keep a music service afloat. Labels have a long history of working with troubled brick-and-mortar retailers so their product will still be available (through payment terms and other non-price-related arrangements). Those efforts are clearly in labels' best interests. Stock levels and sales would drop if the stores did not stock their CDs. In the world of digital music, alternatives are plenty. One fewer music service may make a difference, but it may not. Let's not assume an absence of Imeem would leave consumers, labels or artists any worse off.

If there is a value in remaining steadfast, it is the encouragement of different, more successful business models. Adhering to normal rates sends an important message to the market, and one that labels have heard for the last decade: Your failed business model is not my problem. It's a tough love approach that will save the better of the companies and weed out the weaker ones.

By abandoning the value they place on their assets, content owners are bringing moral hazard into the market. When rates are lowered, ad-supported sites will have fewer incentives to make necessary changes to their business models in order to derive value commensurate with their cost structures. Rather than challenge assumptions and consider radical alternatives, these companies will have an incentive to remain with the status quo.

There are a multitude of differences between the Detroit automakers and music services such as Imeem and Last.fm. The one thing they have in common is a belief that small tweaks will save their business models. Such thinking has not benefitted Detroit, and it will not benefit these music services. (editor, nor did such thinking save the buggy whip makers).

NPD Report Shows Teens Want Free Music

More data showing that teens want their music free.

They are consuming free music through streaming because they have lots of good options in that space - eg. imeem and pandora - which is not the case for free downloaded music.

The NPD Group: Always a Bellwether for the Music Industry, Teens Are Changing How They Interact With Music

U.S. Teens Listening to More Music in More Formats, but Buying and Sharing Less

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., March 31, 2009 –According to The NPD Group, a leader in market research for the entertainment industry, teens (age 13 to 17) acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007. CD purchasing declined 26 percent and paid digital downloads fell 13 percent compared with the prior year. In the case of paid digital downloads, 32 percent of teens purchasing less digital music expressed discontent with the music that was available for purchase, while 23 percent claimed to already have a suitable collection of digital music. Twenty-four percent of teens also cited cutbacks in overall entertainment spending as a reason for buying fewer downloads.

The downturn in paid music acquisition was matched by a downturn in the quantity of tracks downloaded from peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which fell 6 percent in 2008. The number of teens borrowing music, either to rip to a computer or burn to a CD, fell by 28 percent.

”While we expected to see the continued decline in CD purchasing among teens in NPD’s music tracking surveys, it was surprising to see that fewer teens downloaded music from P2P sites or borrowed them from friends,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. “These declines could be happening due to a lack of excitement among teens about the music available, but it could also reflect a larger shift in the ways teens interact with music, given that so much music is now available whenever and wherever they want it.”

NPD’s music tracking surveys noted sharp jumps in teen’s usage of online listening sources and satellite radio in 2008. More than half of teens (52 percent) listened to online radio in 2008, compared to just 34 percent in 2007. Downloading or listening to music on social networks also saw a large increase – from 26 percent in 2007 to 46 percent in 2008; satellite radio listening among teens increased from 19 percent in 2007 to 31 percent in 2008.

"With popular music sites like Pandora, imeem, and MySpaceMusic complementing offerings by terrestrial and satellite radio, more teens may be getting their fill of music and feeling less compelled to buy music or share it with others," according to Crupnick. In fact a recent NPD MusicLab survey revealed that 54 percent of teens who heard a song they liked on MySpace Music were likely to simply listen to that song again on the site, compared with only 1 percent who claimed they would click through and buy the song on AmazonMP3, which is MySpace's online partner for purchased music downloads.

According to NPD's Digital Music Monitor, 70 percent of Web-using teens actively used a portable music player in the fourth quarter of 2008, which is virtually unchanged from the same quarter the year prior. "As the portable music player market matures, there's a greater chance that teens will have already acquired the bulk of their collections, which reduces the desire to buy music or the need to get more by sharing and swapping with others," Crupnick said. "In fact it's possible teens could start spending more time creating playlists and posting them online, than they would spend sharing actual song files."

"The music industry still hasn't recovered from declining CD sales, and now they are being challenged anew by slowing digital sales among teens," Crupnick continued. "Perhaps the next wave for teens comes when just listening to music replaces purchasing actual files, which might end up creating new revenue streams, such as brand- and ad-supported music. It might also put a premium on selling downloads, merchandise, and show tickets directly to teen fans."

Data note: Information in this press release was derived from NPD's Digital Music Study, which are based on ongoing tracking surveys of U.S. consumers. Data was based on a sample of more than 4,000 consumers. Additional information was derived from NPD's MusicLab consumer surveys, which were conducted in January 2009, based on a sample of more than 4,000 consumers. All results were balanced to reflect the U.S. Internet population (age 13 and older).