Research
Digital cable’s penetration level jumped to 21% in ’04 from 7% in ’00, says a CTAM Pulse survey (conducted by Centris) of more than 1K US adults. That makes digital cable penetration about equal to DBS’ total market coverage, which stands at 23%. The survey also found 23% of Americans use broadband, with cable modems favored by PC owners over DSL by about three to two. Nearly equal is the percentage of cable and satellite customers who subscribe to online services- 62% and 63%, respectively. — S-A tapped Centris for a study on DVRs, which found that satellite penetration would have been about 2.5% higher in more mature DVR systems if the service hadn’t been launched. In newer DVR systems, the results were about the same. The DBS penetration rate would have been 1.9% had it not been for the launches. — Call it HD’s gender gap. While men and women rated movies as the most important genre for viewing in HD, men’s second choice was sports and women’s was drama series, Lyra Research says. Reality shows were last.