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About 40% of pay-TV homes said they would likely cancel their TV service and replace it with Aereo if it was available in their market, according to a study from Centris Marketing Science. Another 13% were undecided. Centris believes this suggests “even greater conversion as consumers learn more about the service.”

Nielsen Co. started labelling people in this group "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007

Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.

For the first time, TV ratings giant Nielsen took a close look at this category of viewer in its quarterly video report released in March. It plans to measure their viewing of new TV shows starting this fall, with an eye toward incorporating the results in the formula used to calculate ad rates.

networks for years have complained that total viewing of their shows isn't being captured by traditional ratings measurements. This is a move to correct that.

decision to expand beyond traditional TV ratings measurement came out of a meeting in New York on Tuesday of the What Nielsen Measures Committee, a group that has been meeting for nearly a year.

By September 2013, when the next TV season begins, Nielsen expects to have in place new hardware and software tools in the nearly 23,000 TV homes it samples. Those measurement systems will capture viewership not just from the 75 percent of homes that rely on cable, satellite and over the air broadcasts but also viewing via devices that deliver video from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon, from so-called over-the-top services and from TV enabled game systems like the X-Box and PlayStation.

There will be 202 million Internet-capable TV devices in U.S homes in 2015, a 44 percent increase from the 140 million at the start of 2013, according to the Connected Home Forecast report from NPD Connected Intelligence. Two driving forces in the market are pushing the adoption and use of connected TV devices--streaming media players and the TV itself.

"This is not a Shazam-like feature. It happens before the ad is even broadcast,

ble to read the digital signals coming from the TV satellite feed (used for both satellite and cable TV), telling it when a TV spot from a specific brand has begun. It then triggers the launch of a mobile ad within three seconds of its detection of the TV spot.

On the other end, Xaxis targets users using data from TV audience measurement firm Kantar, which taps into about 1 million U.S. TV households. This could tell Xaxis, for example, which viewers index high for consuming television dramas or live vocal competitions. The campaigns are only designed to reach connected devices on a home Wi-Fi, rather than those who are on mobile devices, Finnegan says. "We want to reach people who are stationary and if they are on Wi-Fi we can assume they are hanging out at home," he notes.

Investors should keep tabs on Verizon's negotiations with Intel to see if Verizon acquires the OnCue Internet-based TV services. If the deal goes through, investors should pay attention to how Verizon plans to use the OnCue services. Bundling OnCue services with Redbox Instant would incentivize subscribers to use Redbox services as a complete TV and movie entertainment package. Outerwall would greatly benefit from such a bundle because more Redbox users translates into expanding revenue. Also, additional offerings under the Redbox name will improve the company brand.

OnCue would be a good addition to Verizon because the company is already in the content business with Redbox Instant and FiOS TV. The question is whether Verizon can negotiate a good deal with Intel. The OnCue service would work well bundled with FiOS and Redbox Instant, or left as a stand-alone product.

The features of this service resemble those of a DVR, but the main difference is every show is recorded and available at any time. The OnCue hardware and services are currently being beta-tested by Intel employees and select users.

Young adults more likely to have Zero TV

more than five million U.S. homes that, according to a recent Nielsen study, have “zero TV.” That’s up from just over 2 million in 2007.

authentication would at least somewhat deter 7 in 10 TVE users, with one-quarter being deterred “a lot.” The researchers note that distaste is particularly high among older respondents, aged 50-64.

pay TV operators face an uphill climb: just 30% of the consumers in pay TV homes surveyed said they have ever used their services, with 52% aware of them. TVE services from TV networks have both higher awareness (64%) and use (37%).

30% of respondents said they’ve used a network’s mobile site to access TVE features (and 34% have used a network’s application), those figures drop to 25% and 26%, respectively, for pay TV services.

Some of the key features of this new medium include:Explosion of user participation through social networkingMore screens, increased portability and interfacesGreater aggregation, discovery and availability of mediaTwo-way streaming that allows users to contribute and become broadcastersScheduling and media assembly moving into the homeBetter understanding of user engagement and greater measurement of behaviour

“Don’t silo your thinking about content in terms of where it will be seen or how it will be delivered — think about all touchpoints, devices and mediums in a cohesive way,” he says.

Soon media will be more about the users than the media creators or the content created

or Internet-based TV to be a competitive option, it either needs to be cheaper than cable and satellite or it needs to provide the content that subscribers want in a better way.

For the companies still working on Web TV, it would mean charging less than traditional competitors for a service while paying more than traditional competitors to offer it.

for a Web TV offering to be truly Web TV, it would need to offer all the channels consumers want alongside the "over-the-top" video capabilities like Netflix and Hulu that they associate with Internet viewing.

Apple TV is reportedly developing ad-skipping technology so owners of a set-top box can watch shows commercial-free. The propsed deal with cable companies would reimburse programmers for skipped ads.

Google is really just hoping to beat Apple to the punch, despite the fact that the company already has its Apple TV streaming product on the market, according to The New York Times "Apple’s thinking… is that any next-generation television service must be set up in partnership with existing distributors, in part for quality assurance reasons. A future Apple service could include a user-friendly interface layered on top of Time Warner Cable or Cablevision’s channel lineup."

Adoption from the major networks is "very unlikely to support any service with their linear feed that allows for commercial messages to be skipped even if they get some form of compensation," Rino Scanzoni, chief investment officer for WPP's GroupM, told AdAge. "This is not a viable economic model and subscribers to the system would not pay an adequate premium to compensate for it." 

Still, you might say a revolution is brewing in the living room — and this one will be televised. It portends not only a change in the TV viewing experience but also poses a threat to cable and satellite TV distributors. Even network executives' notions about scheduling — how positioning a new show adjacent to a popular program in the evening lineup to drive ratings — look anachronistic at a time when Nielsen estimates that 47% of all American households have DVRs and can watch recorded shows whenever they choose, and 55% of broadband homes have at least one TV connected to the Internet, according to market researcher the Diffusion Group.

Concerns about how to reach this group known as the "never connecteds" and count their viewing in a show's ratings adds to a list of headaches that include slumping prime-time broadcast TV ratings and the flight of advertisers to cable.

these smart TVs may look dated compared with what Silicon Valley giant Intel has in store for later this year, not to mention whatever Apple Inc. is planning with its mysterious but hotly anticipated flat-screen TV.

With an Intel-designed set-top box, people won't have to own DVRs or even plan to record programs.

Negotiations with media companies for content rights could delay new services and limit some features, though Intel vows to enter some markets by the end of the year.

"I've never seen as much innovation in television as there is right now," says Ulf Ewaldsson, chief technology officer at Swedish telecom-equipment giant Ericsson, which plans to step up its own TV efforts

Chromecast lets your stream online content to your TV and control it via your new Nexus 7 (also introduced today, along with Android 4.3) or any Android device running version 2.3 or later

Unlike Apple's AirPlay, which can stream content directly from mobile devices to Apple TV, Chromecast pulls content from the cloud. The benefit: If the person initiating the Chromecast leaves the house, someone else can continue controlling the viewing experience with a different Cast-enabled device. It also won't drain the battery of your device.

Like most Google TV devices, it comes with a separate and overly complex remote control. The remote control for Chromecast will be your favorite mobile device (yes, it even beats your iPhone). It's very un-remote like: No special interface or buttons. Since Chromecast revolves around apps, the app remains the interface. If you know Netflix, you know how to work Chromecast.

A mélange of TV resource apps are getting together to help each other, and their users. Dijit, Thuuz, Tomorrowish, IVA and Simple.TV are partnering to integrate their products and services. The theory seems to be that they are stronger working together, rather than alone. Given the non-competitive positioning of each, this could be a boon for TV viewers. First a quick summary of what each of the companies does. Dijit’s NextGuide helps TV viewers discover new TV shows and remember to watch them. Thuuz provides real-time sports updates helping fans tune to the most interesting game on TV at any given time. Tomorrowish let’s viewers watching a show or event on-demand replay the social media buzz from the first broadcast. Internet Video Archive (IVA) specializes in providing show and movie trailers. Simple.TV provides live TV and network DVR services.

Media companies also want to gather and crunch all the data about viewing habits they can to sell to advertisers. The companies receive less high quality data when people watch network programming through an app from Dish Network or DirecTV instead of using their own apps.

"Both sides are paranoid. The operators think that if the programmers can create a one-to-one relationship with the consumer, some day they peel off and become their own HBO," said an executive at a media company involved in content negotiations who was not authorized to talk to the media.

Ad sales on the platforms are still small and hard to estimate, but revenue is expected to grow as more viewing moves to mobile devices

Apple TV could be the shot in the arm needed to finally wake up its mostly dormant advertising business iAd.

The ability to target very specific audiences. Apple has a wealth of first-party data about its customers, due to the fact that they register with their real details when they sign up for Apple ID and iTunes.

Apple should be able to tell who was served an ad and what that individual immediately went on to do afterwards: That could include checking out the advertiser's website on their iPad, or tweeting about the brand via their iPhone. 

If done right, “casting” just might be the “killer” app the second screen world has been looking for.

The report pinpoints which apps are resonating with consumers (and why), and focuses on the new role “casting” content is playing in the second screen ecosystem.

“However, we also noted several apps — including Amazon Instant Video, M-Go, and several TV Everywhere services — that currently have no identifiable casting experience,” said Chuck Parker, chairman of the 2nd Screen Society.