Waterworth,+A+video+focus+group

Waterworth A TO: Video Team FROM: Amanda Waterworth SUBJECT: Video Focus Group Report DATE: March 31, 2010

The following is my report on a focus group I conducted with five college-age students (three females and two males), on their reaction to viewing broadcast television, movies, and live streaming entertainment. I was able to cover all five questions developed by our team. All participants reported they were interested in viewing television broadcasts on a large LCD screen, and only two agreed that going out to a movie theatre was the best option, the remaining students preferred to wait for the movies to come out on DVD or to subscribe to Netflix.


 * Focus Group Rationale**

Premium video content is increasingly being delivered through the Internet, giving Gen-Y many different ways to access TV shows and movies. As a result broadcast TV audiences are being fragmented and the movie industry can no longer assume that box office revenues alone will pay for the production of new movies. The rationale for our focus group sessions is to determine how Gen-Y currently watches premium video and which broadband technologies they prefer. This information will allow us to advise Proximity clients on how best to target Gen-Y using ads associated with premium content.

I conducted a 45-minute interview session at the Olive Garden Restaurant in Hagerstown MD, on March 16, 2010. The college participants were:
 * Settings and Participants**
 * Ross, 24, a Shepherd University senior marketing major;
 * Rachel, 24, a Shepherd University senior business major;
 * Monica, 24, a West Virginia University senior secondary education major;
 * Joey, 21, a West Virginia University sophomore undeclared major;
 * Phoebe, 23, a Towson University sophomore Deaf Studies major;

We covered the following five topics during the session:
 * Session Topics**

__Types of TV shows watched when first broadcasted__ Monica stated that she watches reality television like, The Bachelor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race when first aired. She also prefers to watch Grey's Anatomy when first aired also. For Rachel, she prefers to watch dramas, comedies, and reality dating shows when first aired. Ross likes to watch ESPN sports, music channels (MTV, VH1), police dramas, sci-fi, comedy, and suspense dramas.

__Avoidance of advertisements, or alternatives/preferred way to view advertisements__ Four of the five participants use a DVR, On Demand, or the internet to watch their television shows and to avoid commercials and advertisements. Ross and Rachel own a DVR, they prefer to record their favorite shows on the DVR and watch them later to avoid commercials. Phoebe tends to be busy with classes and working part-time, she will watch her favorite television shows on the internet with limited commercials. Joey prefers to watch his television series on "On Demand" through Comcast. Monica actually did not have anything negative to say about watching the advertisements/commercials occuring during live broadcasting of her favorite television shows, because she likes being able to multi-task and work on the computer while viewing television shows on television.

__Keeping up with new movie releases and viewing them in a theatre__ Only two out of the five students prefer to watch a movie in the theatre, Ross and Joey said, "Because you are seeing the movie on a bigger screen, the sound is amplified to surround sound, makes you feel like your right there in the action". The women said, they do keep up occasionally with new movie releases; Monica quoted "I watch news programs and Entertainment Tonight where they discuss new release movies". Most of the women said they do not have a lot of free time or want to pay approximately $10.00 to go and see the movie in the theaters. The women interviewed preferred to wait for a movie to come out on DVD.

__Viewing movies at home__ Two of the students said they would rent the movies once out on DVD. Joey and Phoebe prefered to rent DVDs through Netflix, where they can just go online and set up a library of what they want to view and recieve the DVDs through the mail and send them back through the mail. Monica said, she would buy the DVD if she knew she wanted to watch it more then twice otherwise she would just rent a DVD if she only wanted to see it once or twice.

__The quality and size__ Everyone did agree that they preferred to watch movies or television shows on a 27" to 37" screen or larger with a LCD-HD receiver. Rachel added that if she were to watch on a computer screen it had to be a 17" or larger with a hi-quality graphics card.

The session revealed that the college participants
 * Findings**
 * Do prefer to see their favorite shows during their live broadcast when first aired but did not hesitate to record from a DVR
 * Would like to view television shows and movies on a large LCD-HD screen
 * The women preferred to wait for their favorite movie releases to come out on DVD, then to find time and the money to go to the theatres

These findings should be compared with the results from our other sessions with all college aged participants. Although the males in this session preferred to see their favorite movies on the big screen, they do not avoid going out and buying their favorite movie, renting or watching them on line. A few of the participants avoided using the internet to watch their favorite television show or movie because of their internet connection was poor and the picture was not of good quality.

In addition the males and females had about the same answer to agreeing to watch their live broadcast television shows on a large LCD-HD screen. The women agreed to wait to watch their favorite movie when it was released out on DVD. We should consider conducting follow-up interviews to determine if our clients and Gen-Y would agree with each other on these findings.