Mahesh Sharma | May 22, 2008
PEOPLE with broadband internet access spend more time on the net than they do watching television, a survey has found, but they're not ready to start paying for content.
The survey of 864 Australians and 219 New Zealanders, conducted by US-based research consultancy arm Illuminas for networking firm Cisco, has found each person spends an average of 22 hours a week on the internet and 14 hours watching television.The web survey was distributed to "respondents that influenced the purchase of internet services and multimedia consumer electronics," Illuminas said, and just under half of the Australian contingent were aged between 30 and 49 years old.
Fifty-one per cent of respondents said they watched video online because it was free and 37 per cent said convenience was an important reason. However, once a price point had been put on the content, for example a $5-a-month subscription fee for video and audio, respondents' interest dropped off sharply.
And while publishers were making a big push to produce more mobile content, only 23 per cent of Australian respondents used their mobile phones to access the internet. And a very small percentage of people used their phones for activities such as playing games or watching a wide range of video content.
When it came to which provider they preferred to sign up with for a combination of all of the services - TV, mobile, internet and video - Telstra attracted 55 per cent of preferences from local customers.
However, in an indication of brand confusion around content providers and network operators, 31 per cent said Telstra BigPond while 24 per cent said Telstra.
The next closest were search engine giant Google, OptusZoo and Foxtel, all hovering around the 20 per cent mark.
Just over half Australians were interested in a single device to store and distribute TV shows, films, music, photos, and contact information, but the majority of these thought the best application would be to remotely monitor the security of their home.
This was followed by remotely accessing music, while people were least interested in using such a device to access video files.
And 47 per cent believed that their home would be exposed to security intrusions and viruses by simply having a device.
"The key challenge for service providers is convincing the average consumer that a centralised digital media storage device will be easy to use and provide greater access to their digital content," said Illuminas managing director, Jay Shutter.