Women consider TV news talent less trustworthy

Are women more skeptical of TV news personalities than men? Among both men and women, there was a marked dip in the perception of TV news people as “trustworthy” during the last election year, 2004. While men's perceptions have gradually climbed back to pre-2004 levels, among women the skepticism persists, with 15% indicating they find news personalities "trustworthy" in 2007 vs. 22% of men. Both men and women are currently less likely to consider news talent "experienced" compared to early 2000.

Source: E-Score category average data. April 2007.

Viewers of content away from the TV

As with most new media, teens are most likely to watch video on a nontraditional device (i.e., not a home TV). About half of 18 to 34 year olds report watching on alternate devices.

Watch Video Content on Devices Other Than TV

Base: Total respondents n=5638

New medium for watching video content

Over three-quarters of those who watch video on devices other than TV say they watch on a computer. The computer offers an open source environment where all types of videos are readily available and easily accessed. Comparatively, mobile platforms are far less frequently used to watch video content, in part due to the availability of very select content on these other devices. MP3 players, including iPod, are used by one quarter of owners to watch video content, followed by PDA and cell phones among owners of each of those devices. The introduction of more, and differentiated content for alternate viewing environments is critical to consumer adoption of mobile platforms. The types of content which easily transfer to the mobile device will likely determine future usage in this new environment.

Alternate Viewing Devices Used to Watch Video

Base: watch video on devices other than TV; owners of each device

Moving back to TV

Currently, only about 6% of consumers report transferring content from computer to TV, however, over one-third (37%) want this capability, and this measure is fairly consistent across demographic groups. A number of products that bridge the Internet TV gap were announced this year including Apple TV and Sony's Bravia Internet video link. Once the full Internet experience is replicated on TV in a way that is simple and straightforward for the consumer there is a clear opportunity for TV networks to monetize that additional traffic.

Source: E-Poll Content Viewing Study. March 2007.