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Oonagh Reidy

IPTV Rockets As Viewers Log-on In Droves

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More Australians than ever are logging on to Internet TV and pre-recorded programmes, spelling the end for traditional formats, according to new research just released.
Viewers here are also among the highest users of the online TV platform currently within Australasia, watching 19 hours of content broadcast over the web each week, topped only by the Japanese at 21 hours and followed by China at 16 hours.

However, free to air services are currently the favourite among digital offerings in Australia, with a 96 percent viewing rate, meaning a very small number are paying to view digital tv content here.

The findings come as Optus is about to amplify its IPTV and are said to be in talks with companies including FetchTV to provide the pay-TV, which would offer ready-to-go digital set-top box and PVR, as well as other pay as you go channels and movies, for an optimum fee of around $30 a month after an initial $99 join-up cost.

Telstra also recently launched their T Box BigPond offering, and with Google TV and Apple TV all getting in on the online television content act, as well as a host of other competitors who are moving into the IPTV market here, means Foxtel’s dominant position days are numbered.

As previously reported by ChannelNews, the biggest problems for Foxtel is the emergence of new HD TV Channels such as Go, Gem, 7TWO, 7Mate and ABC 1 and 3 from the ABC,  which has allowed free to air networks and the ABC to deliver new content streams similar to what Foxtel offer at no cost to consumers.

Foxtel From Monopoly To IPTV Competition Will They Cut It?

Australian audiences are still doing most of their viewing within the home and have very little interest in accessing paid content outside of the home, and this trend went almost across the board, according to the survey.

 

This could be partly attributable to the lack of paid-for services currently available on the market apart from Foxtel.

Japanese and Singaporean audiences also showed similar enthusiasm for free-to-air services.

Viewers in South East Asia and China, on the other hand, showed a marked preference to paid-for television services over free content, despite being more readily available.  

However, despite this love for IPTV, Aussie viewers are eschewing other technologies including 3DTV, with just one in five saying they will be watching programmes from a 3D box set in two years time.

For IPTV, two out of five said they either use or intend to use this technology by 2012.

The TV mix is now firmly steering towards a mix of Internet content, on-demand and pre-recorded video, confirms Motorola who carried out the survey, although willingness to payfor new services also highlighted regional cultural differences across Australasia.

Just two out of five Australians said they would be willing to change service providers in order to get a better service, indicating that the possible lack of alternatives until very recently, has led to audiences becoming complacent with their current service offering.

 

“Service providers need to develop a keen understanding of their customer’s cultural, technological and economic needs in each market and be agile enough to roll out services that meet specific requirements and desires,” says Kevin Keefe, VP Motorola Mobility.

This means having content and delivery platforms in place to react to customer demand, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

The Motorola backed study looked at the viewing habits of 7,500 internet-using consumers in 13 markets.

Telstra To Shut 1/5 Stores..But Open 100 More

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Telco plans to cut Telstra owned stores from 103 to 80. But that’s not all.

It plans, in turn, to extend the number of licensed stores which will focus on selling highly profitable devices like tablets and smartphones, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The new stores will also focus on sales rather than service.

Earlier this year 100 new Telstra stores were announced, it was also said the telco was planing to sell TVs packed with content and application options, along with accessories “tailored to suit local markets,” according to CEO David Thodey.

And it now appears all 100 of the new shops will be owned by licensees.

The stores also look set to be smaller and in more locations.

It also hopes 70 per cent of its traffic will consists of ‘high-value sales,’ according to the report.

Recently, the Telco has started a major drive to push its customer service unit online and steer customers away from in-house service.

 

It has already invested $1bn in Project New – their major drive to improve consumer service and turn around the perceptions of the communications giant – and has predicted 30 percent of its interaction with customer will be done online by 2013.

Microsoft Phone 7 Sales Hit 1.5m

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Six weeks after its launch, the software is being well embraced by phone makers.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 has been well received by Smartphone users worldwide since its launch in October, offering over 4,000 apps.

It also allows control of home automation systems using the mobile software.

It is seen as a last ditch effort by the software giants to get a foothold in a phone industry dominated by the likes Apple and Google.

“If Windows 7 Phone smartphone sold in large enough volume, then Microsoft deserve continued fighting in the global smartphone market. However, if the smartphone windows 7 Phone was not sold, then Microsoft should forget about the smartphone market for ever,” said Ovum analyst Tony Cripps earlier this year.

Microsoft have seen their share of the Smartphone market slip from over 50% over the past few years.

“We know we have tough competition, and this is a completely new product,” says Achim Berg, Microsoft’s Business VP for Windows Phones, who revealed the figures on the company website.

 

HTC, Dell, Samsung and LG are all to offer the Windows 7-basedsoftware on their Smartphone devices, selling 1.5 million to makers so far and other brands to follow suit in the New Year, according to Berg.

“It’s a different kind of phone, fast and easy.”

The software has been well received by consumers, say Microsoft, with the overall software user experience seen as ‘very positive’.

“We’re in the race – it’s not a sprint but we are certainly gaining momentum and we’re in it for the long run.”

Asus Launches New Series Android 3.0 Pads

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The new series of stylish Eee Pad’s are to be powered by Honeycomb, or Android 3.0, according to reports from CES.The trio, the Eee Pad MeMO, Transformer and the Slider are the latest offering by the Taiwanese computer maker, adding to their already top-selling Eee family of netbooks, first announced at the Computex show which was held in Taipei last June.

The new Pads, displayed at CES 2011, is the latest bid by Asus to gain some of the tab market share gobbled up by the phenomenally popular Apple iPad, although precise details on the portable devices is still somewhat sketchy.

In order to compete with the iPad, Asus sought to strengthen the Eee Pad’s industrial design and collaborated with Google to adopt the Android platform, chairman Jonney Shih said earlier this year.

The 7.1 inch Eee Pad EMeMO, which doubles as a Smartphone, is said to include features including dual-cameras, 1080p video playback, and a micro HDMI port, running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

The hybrid device also does as it says on the tin, featuring custom art and memo-pad programs.

The note taking device will costs around $499 to $699 when it hits the stores in June this year.

The middle child of the Eee Pad family, the Transformer, looks more like a netbook than a conventional Pad device, with its detachable, full size keyboard and 10.1 inch screen.

 

With its IPS display (1280_800 pix) and long battery life (16 hours) as well as NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, rear (5 megapix) and front facing camera ( 1.2 megapix), which is still currently lacking on the iPad, the device could well bridge the gap between a tab and netbook device.

It is to be priced competitively from $399 to $699.

The Eee Pad Slider features the same hardware as the Transformer (10.1 IPS display, Tegra 2, dual-cameras) and runs on Asus custom built MyWave UI.

Its lightweight, nifty design allows the keyboard to slide under the screen when not in use, giving the impression of a notebook but with the extra hint of portability allowed by tabs.

Gerry Harvey: Hold Off Carbon Tax, Consumer Confidence To Be Hit

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He is at it again. Harvey Norman wades into the murky world of carbon tax claiming it will knock consumer confidence – and ultimately his bottom line.Harvey has joined a slew of big business names in their call on Julia Gillard to halt the tax her government is so bent on introducing, for now.

Business figures, Harvey included, want a delay until July 1st of next year and are calling for bigger compensation, in a submission from over 20 big name Australian businesses made to government’s climate change committee. 

“As long as you’re up there making headlines with another tax, of course its going to affect consumer confidence,” Gerry Harvey said yesterday.

However, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has insisted all proceeds raised form the tax will go back to the consumer. 

“The government has committed to use every dollar raised by a carbon price paid by big polluting businesses to help people with any price impacts,” he stated in the media earlier this month.   

The business heads also want a top up of the levels of compensation set by Kevin Rudd back in 2009, according to The Australian. 

However, this is one fight that is bound to get messy. Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, has already gone on the offensive, campaigning in Gillard home ground of Melbourne against the introduction of the tax, the precise details of which have yet to be agreed.  

This isn’t the first time Harvey has aired his views over Canberra’s tax regime, or lack of it.   

 

Last year, he joined a band of retailers including Myer and David Jones calling for the introduction of a 10 percent GST tax to be levied on goods bought from international retailers online.

However, Harvey was forced to go mute after he received a backlash from annoyed consumers. 

”Because of my profile, I then get all these threats and people hone in on me,” he said at the time.

Amazon: Kindle Selling Like Hot Cakes & Burning Books

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Kindle e-books outsells print titles for first time ever.


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The e-reader’s digital titles is now outselling both print and hardcover books combined in the US, and this is the first time this has happened since the Kindle was first launched in November 2007, Amazon said last week.

By July last year, e-book sales had surpassed hardcover titles – although paper and hard copies combined still had the edge, but now it seems digital titles have won out – on Amazon.com at least.

“Less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books – hardcover and paperback – combined,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com.

“Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books.

We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly – we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.”

Its newly released Kindle, which retails for US$114, is the best seller of all time in the US, it said today. The device was introduced just 5 weeks ago. Last year, the online giant said it accounts for 70-80 percent of all ebook sales.

For every 100 print book bought, 105 digital editions were purchased. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition.

 

Amazon sold more than three times as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010. Free Kindle books, if included, would have pushed sales numbers even higher, it also said.

Outside of the US, the conversion to digital titles is a bit behind, although Amazon UK reports customers are purchasing twice as many Kindle books as hardcovers, but overall print still holds the edge with Britons.

The US Kindle Store now has more than 950,000 books, many selling at under $10 and start for as little as $0.99.

Although this is a massive feat, some within the book industry have raised doubts over the financial feasibility of digital sales when prices are so low.

Amazon’s “buy once, read everywhere” e-book format is compatible with all Apple and Adroid devices and are set to be HP TouchPads and BlackBerry PlayBooks “soon.”

Myer & DJ Plead For Mercy As Sales Slip

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Retail kings Myer and David Jones are begging for no future interest hikes as they scavenge for ‘green shoots’ amid an otherwise dreary retail sector.Both high street retail houses have witnessed declining sales in the most recent quarter.

Myer sales figures saw it dip 2 per cent  to the end of April to $657 million compared to a year ago, while its neighbour David Jones figures, announced today, also told a similar story, sliding  1.4 per cent to $411.7 million compared to Q3 last year.

DJ’s admitted it faced ‘”challenging” trading conditions in the first months of the year, aggrevated further by strong discounting by retailers as it looked to turn around cautious consumer spending and warned any rates hike would have a further negative impact on trading.

“I wouldn’t see it as a positive. We’ve seen four increases in the last year. But ultimately it does hit home,” David Jones chief Paul Zahra warned.

Myer Chief, Bernie Brookes, and David Jones have both also blamed price deflation in the electrical goods sector in particular, with the former downgrading its profit forecasts for the year by up to 5 per cent.

However, Brookes has spotted “a couple of green shoots coming through,” although thinks “a couple of them will curl when there’s an interest rate increase,” in a thinly veiled warning to the Reserve.

And David Jones chief Zahra, was keeping the bright side out also, noting the high end retailer had been buoyed by better April trading.

“I think customers are remaining value conscious. April saw colder weather and that has matched what our offer had been in store. We had a later Easter which is good for retail anyway,” said the clothing chief .

 

Calling the winter season fashion “one of the best we’ve had “Zahra pointed to “discerning trends within the fashion portfolio” as helping to lift sales, he added.

What A Plank! Dick Smith Manager Sacked For Stunt

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Woolies has fired eight staff for “planking” on the job including several from its Dick Smith electronics chain.


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Image credit: Facebook Planking Australia.

The sacking followed managerial tip offs from colleagues and the screening of the daredevil deeds on Facebook.

Those dismissed, include Woolworth owned Dick Smith branch manager and assistant manager from a NSW store, who it was revealed had planked a 7 ft tall shelf, a spokesperson, Clare Buchanan, told Channel News.

The shelf was located on the shop floor and not in the back of house. Two Dick Smith staff were dismissed in total.

However, its not the planking they got the sack for, but rather  for “reckless and dangerous behaviour,” she insisted.

Planking, a craze that has taken the world by storm, involves lying down in tight spots and then recording the deed and can be a massive source of amusement. Planking Australia’s Facebook site has almost 150,000 ‘likes’ so far.

However, Woolies were not amused and, defending the sacking on ABC radio this morning, insist the planking was a breach of health and safety rules and endangering other members of staff.

“What clearly started out as a bit of a joke on the internet has gone too far and it’s costing people their jobs and, as we’ve also seen this week, their lives,” Buchanan said.

Another of the sacked Woolworths employees planked on a 2.5 metre-high shelf and two other staff in Victoria were fired for planking on a meat mincer. The sacking took place across three states including Queensland.

 

However, the craze does shave a murky side. One Brisbane youth fell to his death last Sunday after he attempted to plank a seven ft high building.  

Retail Struggles As Online Alters Game, Warns CBA

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Retail sales the biggest business casualty in April, sliding 1.4 percent with sellers facing an uphill battle


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The drop was the biggest fall of all industry sectors, according to the latest Business Sales Indicator (BSI) from Commonwealth Bank.

The retail weakness also acted as a drag on April’s overall sales, which excluding the drop, recorded a 0.3 per cent gain in April. Car sales were also down 0.4 per cent.

 “The retail sector is clearly struggling,” said Commonwealth’s Matt Comyn who also blamed online e-tailing as altering the game rules and traditional bricks and mortar business model.

 And it’s an “uphill battle” he admitted with cautious consumer spending not helping matters. Whilst the difficulty being faced by the sector is nothing new, the industry is facing a growing set of challenges, Comyn warned.

“Online retailing is becoming increasingly prevalent, affecting the traditional retailing model.

This is being compounded by the effects of a strong Australian dollar and consumers who are still unwilling to spend.”

Overall performance is a long way off figures from two years ago, Craig James, Chief Economist of CommSec agreed.
“Conservatism is still clearly the word of choice when it comes to the Australian consumer.”

 

And even economists are uncertain about future growth. “We don’t yet know what the full impact of this will be on their overall level of confidence,” he admitted despite being saved further hardship by the Federal budget just announced.

“With the prospect of two additional rate rises over the remainder of 2011, it wouldn’t be surprising if sales continued to trudge along at this pace for some time to come.”

This wont please the heads of retail houses Myer and David Jones, who both came out last week warning any rates hike would have a further negative impact on trading, agreeing trading was “challenging.”

However, there was some good news emerging from today’s stats.

The strongest lift in spending in the entertainment sector including cinema and video stores.Utility sales also rose. 

NSW recorded the weakest sales (-2.1 per cent), followed by Queensland (-1.1 per cent).

“The latest results show a significant deterioration in spending in NSW in the past four months” the CBA warned.

The BSI tracks the value of credit and debit card sales processed through the bank’s point-of-sale terminals, which accounts for around 40% of total market.

 

The strongest performance was recorded in the ACT (+0.5 per cent), followed by Northern Territory (+ 0.2 per cent) and Tasmania (+0.1 per cent).