The combination of the two companies will bring Blink’x 35 million hours of online video and TV to Burst’s audience of over 130 million unique users.

Blinkx said it will create video channels for specific audiences that will be matched to Burst’s network of publisher sites. The move will build an online video audience for Burst’s advertisers.

“In just a few years, we have seen online video advertising become the fastest growing segment of online advertising. Up until now, the primary barrier to further television advertising budgets moving online has been online video’s inability to match the sheer scale of audience that television can deliver,” said Suranga Chandratillake, chief Executive of Blinkx.

“By fusing blinkx’s unique patented technology and large video index with Burst’s massive reach, we will have the potential to create personalised, online television that is watched by hundreds of millions of users.”

The majority of Burst’s senior management team will continue with the combined group, with Jarvis Coffin, Co-Founder and CEO of Burst and David Stein, Co-Founder and CTO of Burst remaining in temporary roles to assist transition.

“By combining with blinkx and its enormous video index, we will be able to substantially enhance our users’ experience with high quality, relevant video, and also improve monetisation for our publishers through high value video advertising,” said Jarvis Coffin, Chief Executive of Burst.

Overall, either national television programming or the Internet are most often cited by sports fans – 30.8% and 25.7%, respectively – as their primary source of sports news and information. Male sports fans are significantly more likely than female sports fans (32.1% vs. 16.4%) to cite Internet content as their primary sports information source. National television sports programming is more popular with female sports fans: one-third (34.8%) cite it as their primary sports information source.

Sports fans use the Internet to check scores and stats (59.2%); read sports-related news stories and commentary (47.4%); and watch sports-related videos and clips (35.6%). The bulk (31.3%) of respondents cites between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. as when they are most likely to visit sports-related sites and resources on the Internet.

 Social platforms such as Facebook or Twitter can help brands be more effective with endorsement programs: overall, one-quarter (24.7%) of sports fans currently or have at one time or another followed their favorite athletes in social media. Among 18-24 year-old sports fans, 36.5% turn to social media. One-third (33.0%) of 25-34 year-olds follow their favorite sports stars, as does one-quarter (27.4%) of 35-44 year-olds.

Among all sports fans, 32.1% identify themselves as “avid” fans who “try to stay updated as much as possible” on sports scores and news, and 67.9% are “casual" fans who say they “follow sports from time to time.” In the avid sports fans segment, two-thirds (67.9%) are between the ages of 25-54, with nearly half (46.3%) being 35-54 years old. More than half (55.1%) of avid fans have graduated from college and one-quarter (27.3%) report a household income of $75,000 or more.

“Brands of all kinds have a significant opportunity to reach and engage a loyal and savvy audience in online sports content,” said Mark Kaefer, Director of Marketing at Burst Media.

“By rounding out broadcast and print media campaigns with an online component, advertisers can reach a targeted audience of educated and affluent consumers.”
 

The Internet is trailed by local TV programming (23.7%), national TV networks (15.1%), local newspaper (6.7%), national newspaper (3.6%), and sports radio (2.9%).

Among the key age segments, 18-24 years and 25-34 years, the Internet far outweighs both local and national TV coverage as the main source of sports and news information. Adults 55 years and over still turn to local TV news over the Internet.

Among all respondents sports content is in demand regardless of which media is cited as their primary source. Nearly one-half (49.2%) of respondents use the Internet to check sports scores and 41.3 percent read sports-related news stories online.

Interestingly, nearly as many women as men use the Internet to check sports scores (47.3% vs.50.5%), read sports stories (39% vs. 42.8%) and visit professional team sports sites (25.2% vs. 26.2%). The Burst survey also found over half (55%) of all respondents indicated they have never watched live streaming game coverage on the Internet.

"It’s abundantly clear that men and women of all ages are active consumers of sports content online," said Chuck Moran, Chief Marketing Officer for Burst Media. "This provides marketers an opportunity to expand the reach of their campaigns targeted to sports enthusiasts by adding an online component".

"Also, by utilizing a multichannel strategy of combining Internet and TV, advertisers can surround their target audience with coordinated messaging for greater impact."

The survey also found that although the Internet is the most popular media source for sports content, it is not seen as the best source. Overall, national TV sports networks, such as ESPN, are viewed by respondents as the best place to get sports and information news. However, men believe national TV sports networks and Internet sports content sites offer equivalent sports content (30.1% and 28.7% of men, respectively).

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Although consumers plan to be thrifty with their spending this holiday season, the majority (85.3%) will shop online.

With the current economic concerns, the survey found only 14.6 percent of respondents plan to spend more this holiday season than they did in 2008, while one third (32.7%) expect to spend less and 30.1 percent plan to spend about the same as they did last year.

Women will be more frugal than men this holiday season with 38.1 percent planning to spend less on gifts and entertainment, compared to 27.3 percent of all men. All income segments will trim holiday spending this year with 29.5 percent of those with household income (HHI) of less than $35,000 cutting spending, as will almost half (46.%) of households reporting HHI of $35,000-$75,000, and nearly one third (31.3%) of households reporting HHI of $75,000 or more.

Chuck Moran
Chief Marketing Officer
Burst Media

Despite the fact that 63 percent of consumers are concerned about credit card security when making an online purchase 69.3 percent still plan on making an online holiday purchase. Consumers will also use the Internet to "window shop." The most popular online window-shopping activities are comparing different retailers to find the best price (56.8%), and comparing the features of different brands (55.3%).

The Burst survey also found there does not seem to be a clear start to the holiday shopping season as only 13.6 percent of respondents consider "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving) to be the official kick-off.

"There is no denying that consumers will be shopping online this holiday season, and it is clear that the holiday shopping season for consumers has no definitive starting point," said Chuck Moran, Chief Marketing Officer for Burst Media.

"This provides an incredible opportunity for marketers to spread their holiday message on the Internet this year. Advertisers can start building awareness now, and quickly change to a more seasonal action as the holidays approach."

Among 18-34 year olds, 40 percent spend less than 30 minutes per day on sites like Facebook and MySpace. The top content categories for that demographic actively seek out entertainment news (48.6%), gaming (40.5%), local/national news (37.3%) and social media (35.5%).

More than half of boomers are viewing local/national news (55.8%) content, two out of five (41.6%) are viewing shopping/comparison content, and 40.2 percent are viewing health information.

Age impacts the use of social networking sites with 77.4 percent of 18-34 year olds belonging to social networking sites, compared to 47.5 percent of baby boomers. Women overall (56.5% versus 50.6% of men) across all age segments are more likely than men to belong to a social networking site.

"There is no denying the fact that social networks are hugely popular, but it is important to recognize that Internet users still spend a significant portion of their time online visiting content sites," said Chuck Moran, Vice President of Marketing at Burst Media.

"The results of this survey reveal a tremendous opportunity for marketers to utilize both social media and the thousands of high quality Long Tail web sites to reach their target audiences."

Concern about online privacy is common among all age segments, and increases with the respondent’s age from 67.3 percent among those 18-24 years to 85.7 percent of those 55 years and older.

Online privacy is a prevailing concern for web surfers," said Chuck Moran, VP of Marketing for Burst Media. "Advertisers must take concrete actions to mitigate consumers’ privacy concerns and at the same time continue to deliver their message as effectively as possible."

"In addition and as recently seen in the news flare up regarding Facebook’s privacy controversy, publishers need to be completely transparent about their privacy policies."

The survey also found that most Internet users believe Web sites are tracking their behavior online. More than half (62.5%) of respondents believe it is likely that a site they visit collects information on how they navigate and interact with it.

Most Internet users are not willing to give up their personal privacy for more relevant advertising. Based on the description "advertisements more relevant to interest," only 23.2 percent of respondents would not mind if non-personally identifiable information was collected if ads were better targeted.

The survey polled 4,000 Web users to gauge how ad clutter impacts their Internet experience and how it affects the perception of advertisers who place their ads on cluttered sites.

Ad clutter not only annoys the audience but it also decreases ad effectiveness. The majority (75.5%) of the respondents who stay on a site they perceive to be cluttered say they pay less attention to advertisements appearing on its pages.

Users accept that advertising will appear on a Web page, but more than half (52.6%) have a low tolerance for more than two ads per web page. Nearly a third (29.9%) immediately leave a site if they think it is cluttered. Women are more likely than men to leave a site that appears cluttered – 32.1 percent versus 27.5 percent.

The survey found that ad clutter has a negative impact on a consumer’s perception of an advertiser’s products and services. Over half (52.4%) of respondents had a less favorable opinion of an advertiser when their advertising appears on a page they perceive as cluttered. More women (56.4%) said clutter negatively impacts their opinion of an advertiser than men (48.3%).

The survey also found that ad clutter’s negative impact on respondent’s opinions increases with age. Less than half (46.8%) of respondents 18-24 were impacted negatively by clutter compared to nearly two-thirds (63.2%) of respondents 55 years and older.

"One of the main obstacles to getting consumers’ attention online is ad clutter," said Chuck Moran, VP of Marketing for Burst Media. "It is critical for advertisers to ensure their messages are being placed in a high quality content environment to receive the maximum exposure they deserve, and to preserve their brand’s reputation."

One-fifth (21.5%) of men say the Internet is their main source on the positions that the presidential candidates have on major election issues. Among men 25-34 years old, 28.6 percent cite the Internet as their primary source of election information.

Two out of five (38.5%) definite voters have visited a presidential candidate’s Web site. Men (44.1%) are slightly more likely than women (38.2%) to have visited a candidate’s Web site.

Reading information about a candidate’s position on major campaign issues is the most popular activity (54.1%) when visiting their Web sites. Other activities include watching a video clip (41.4%), signing up for email alerts (29.2%), sending email (22.1%), leaving a comment (20.2%), making an online donation (18%), and signing up to volunteer (11.9%).

Overall, close to one-third (30.2%) of voters have visited Barack Obama’s Web site, and one quarter have visited John McCain’s Web site. Almost the same number of men have visited both candidates Web sites, 31 percent have visited Obama’s site, and 30 percent have visited McCain’s site.

Few voters who have visited both candidates Web sites say they were "very effective" at offering policy information they were searching for. Among visitors to John McCain’s Web site 19.4 percent say the site was "very effective" at providing information they were looking for, and another 29.1 percent said it was "somewhat effective."

Among visitors to Obama’s Web site, 40 percent said the site was "very effective" at providing them with information they were searching for, and 28.3 percent said it was "somewhat effective."

More than half (54.2%) of voters remember online advertising for a presidential candidate and 23.6 percent said they clicked on an ad for a candidate. Voters 55 years and older are most likely to say they have clicked on a presidential candidates ad (27.1%).

"Political advocacy and information provided via the Internet serve as a great touch point for voters of all demographic groups," said Chuck Moran, VP of Marketing for Burst Media. "The targeting capabilities of online resources can also serve to granularly present information to niche constituents. Candidates that present interactive, content rich information in a variety of formats will be able to reach the broadest array of voters
 

The study found that around three-quarters of Internet users aged 18 to 34 believe that web content is primarily focused on their age groups. Another 55% of Internet users between 35 and 44 believe that it’s focused around their age group. After 45, however, there is a decline, with a little more than 1 in 3 of the 45-54 group agreeing, just over 1 in 5 of the 55-64 group agreeing and about 1 in 8 of the 65+ group agreeing.

Obviously, not everyone between the ages of 18 and 45 can be the primary focus of all Internet content. Then who among these groups is correct—or all they wrong altogether? While we probably can’t say for sure without doing some sort of survey of Internet content and Internet content creators, I think there are a few important take aways here:

• Much of Internet content is ageless. It’s entirely possible that a 22-year-old could be thinking of the same websites as a 33-year-old and a 44-year-old when they say that web content is primarily focused on them.
• People find content they’re interested in on the Internet. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the majority of content on the web isn’t interesting to me. But when people find things online that are aimed toward them, they will probably assume that this content was written for their demographic, regardless of whether it was or not. And since we tend to gravitate toward things that appeal to us and interest us, it will probably seem like most of the content on the Internet is geared toward us and our peers.
• People are naturally self-interested. Don’t you ever forget it. Appeal to that self interest.
• People over 45 feel left out. This may not be a bad thing; perhaps they feel a certain pride in not being the focus of Internet content. But if this demographic is your audience, you need to make an extra effort to appeal to them, to make it clear that your site is about them and to cater to their needs.

Naturally, of course, if you’re trying to appeal to a younger audience, you’ll want to make it clear on your site that you’re focused on them. Then again, they probably already think you are .

Comments

Women are almost twice as likely as men to watch online video on TV networks Web sites, while on user- generated sites such as YouTube, men 18 to 34 were more than twice as likely as women in the same age group to watch videos.

Michael Pond, a media analyst with Nielsen Online, attributes men’s preferences of user-generated video to the shorter clips, which usually feature humor as appealing to the younger male audience.

According to Nielsen 73 percent of active Internet users viewed online video in December. This is inline with a recent survey from Burst Media that found 72 percent of Internet users had watched some form of online video. Still the challenge for marketers remains how to advertise in online video.

"For online video advertising to be truly effective, advertisers must approach it with a consumer’s mindset, and recognize that what might be right for one segment could fail with another," said Jarvis Coffin, CEO of Burst Media.

Nielsen also found that online video watchers are partial to a specific network TV Web site and don’t visit a wide variety of other network Web sites, compared to fans of user generated content who visit a number of different sites.