Thursday, July 10, 2008

People Using TVs to Listen to Music


I'm not surprised at the results of a new Parks Associates survey that discovered that one-third of U.S. and Canadian broadband households use their TVs to listen to music. Remember this previous post about my dad's surprise discovery that he could do this, and subsequent frequent use of the feature?

"iPods are sexy, but not everybody has one," explained John Barrett, Director of Research at Parks Associates. "TVs are ubiquitous and increasingly capable of delivering a range of content, especially with new features like digital music delivery and place-shifting services. This is just the tip of the iceberg for TV applications."

Indeed even in my own tech-savvy household, I find that we often use the TV as a conduit for background tunes, either by using the dedicated music channels provided by our cable company; or via a concert DVD. This way, we can not only enjoy the full surround sound speaker system, but also catch glimpes of the live performance when in need of some visual stimulation.

In addition to the TV, two-thirds of consumers said they use a PC to play back music at home.

If nothing else, this study reinforces how every format for content distribution is connected; we're no longer just watching TV, listening to the radio, and word processing via the PC. We're engaging in every medium in more ways than we ever have.

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