• 26% of Males (13 to 34) Watch Video on Devices Other Than Television

    Posted on May 7th, 2007 Richard No comments

    A research brief from the Center for Media Research, Five Additional Ways to Watch TV, outlines some interesting findings from E-Poll.

    The research suggests that 26% of males between 13 and 34 watch video on devices other than the television.

    No clue if this includes YouTube - I’m assuming it does - which in my opinion would skew the results significantly.

    The study found that those that do watch video away from the television:

  • 75% view on a desktop computer
  • 46% view on a laptop
  • 16% view on a portable video player
  • 13% view on iPod
  • 13% view on cell phone
  • The percentages aren’t that startling, but I’d say that the last three are a large increase from previous years. Not that we have stats to back that up.

    The most interesting statistic I found was that 13% currently transfer video content from their computer to their TV, and that 55% of those that watch video online would like to transfer content to their television sets.

    Big news for the makers of the right type of set top box, like the Apple TV.

  • Improving Your Recommendations

    Posted on May 7th, 2007 Richard 2 comments

    As I’ve mentioned, Scouta’s main goal is to provide you with great recommendations that match your taste and interests. But, with an aim of making Scouta simple to use, we hid the workings under the hood.

    So, I thought I’d put together a simple description of how you can improve the recommendations Scouta provides you.

    Add Favorites

    The best way to improve the recommendations is to add Favorites from the Internet. Be really specific and link directly to the actual media file: like a .mp3, .mov, .avi, YouTube pages, Google Video page, MySpace Video pages, etc. That way the results are really refined.

    Rate

    A quick way to improve you ratings, but is a little less specific to you, is to rate items that already exist in Scouta, including those in your Recommendations list. This gives Scouta an insight into what you like and don’t like.

    Join or Create Groups

    If you’ve joined or created a group, then not only will you find some great Favorites, but Scouta will also be able to take these into consideration.

    Add Title, Description, and Tags

    Over time Scouta builds up an understanding of your tastes and interests based on keywords that are included in all the details associated with a Favorite. So it’s important to add as much detail to anything you add or rate.

    That’s it. Simple isn’t it.

    We also aim to make it even simpler, and soon will release the Mac version of our iTunes agent. That way you’ll only need to listen to or watch media in iTunes, on your iPod, or with an Apple TV.