Indiantelevision.com Team

(12 July 2008 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: One-third of bar patrons in the US watch television programming at home using a DVR (digital video recorders) and approximately three-quarters use software to block advertising online, according to a survey by Arbitron.

The Arbitron Bar Media Report profiles the audience for bar and lounge advertising.

Nearly one-third of American adults, age 21 or older, are bar patrons and 43 per cent of men, age 21 to 34, have visited a bar or lounge in the past week.

The report reveals that bar-based advertising has the potential to reach not only to a significant portion of adult consumers, but concentrate its message amongst those who actively avoid advertising delivered on television or on Internet.

Arbitron senior analyst custom research Diane Williams says, “Advertisers come to us trying to figure out how best to counteract commercial avoidance in their media plan, especially among young adults. The results of this survey strongly suggest that advertising placed in bars goes a long way towards reaching this elusive and valuable consumer segment.”

As per the report, bar patrons embrace new media and technologies at a faster pace than average Americans, particularly new television and music platforms. The research shows that bar patrons are more likely than average Americans, age 21 or older, to watch TV shows online (streaming), through Internet downloads, using cable provider Video On Demand (Vod) services or on DVD.

All these new ways of consuming TV programming, combined with DVR usage, significantly limit the viewer’s exposure to traditional TV commercials. On the other hand, the report also states that 42 per cent of bar patrons have watched TV in a bar in the past month. This represents an opportunity for brands to reach out to those users with TV ads that cannot be skipped.

The music listening habits of bar-goers also differ from the general population. While 58 per cent of weekly bar patrons have listened to radio online, 16 per cent have listened to radio over the Internet in the past week.

Bar-goers are also more likely to be subscribers to satellite radio services such as XM or Sirius.

Furthermore, 43 per cent of bar-goers own an iPod or other MP3 player and 27 per cent have purchased music online from sites such as iTunes.