The big four networks plus ESPN, Discovery, History, USA, Food Network and TNT are the top ten TV brands American consumers can’t do without, according to the latest edition of the “Must Keep TV” report from Solutions Research Group (SRG).

The fifth edition of the independent tracking survey is based on interviews with 1,400 American consumers in March 2012 who evaluated 73 TV brands.

ABC was identified as the top “must-keep” TV brand in by 51% of all respondents overall, narrowly beating CBS, FOX, and NBC. This is the fourth time ABC topped the ‘must keep TV’ poll out of five waves of research since 2007. Among men, CBS took the top spot, while ABC led in most key female demographics and took the overall top spot.

Among other highlights of the 2012 research:

· AMC is the top story of the year. Powered by The Walking Dead and Mad Men, AMC is now in the #30 spot among Adults 18-49, up from #51 last year. In the younger 18-34 demographic, it leaped into the #19 position, up a record 34 spots from last year. AMC is now seen as a more valuable channel in this younger demographic than brands such as A&E or TLC.

· PBS is also one of the big stories of this year, leaping 7 spots to #12 “must keep TV” brand in America overall, based on the huge popularity of the Downton Abbey franchise. Among women 18+, it was ranked #11, ahead of brands like TBS or HBO.

· As online alternatives pick up momentum, TV viewers appear to be slowly abandoning premium movie channels like Starz, Movie Channel and Cinemax. These three brands declined in rankings in all demos. In the 18-49 demo: Starz declined from #34 to #41 while Cinemax dropped from #46 to #53.

· Other interesting success stories included ABC Family which improved its standing in most demos significantly (now #17 overall). Warmer-than-normal temperatures made The Weather Channel must keep TV for more viewers, now ranked #20 among A18+, up six spots last year.

· Moving in the wrong direction this year: Nickelodeon is down five spots to #25 and Fox News is down 7 spots to #30.  HBO remained outside of the top 10 for the second year in a row although it improves its standing from to #11 since 2011 due to strong momentum among men 25-54.

· The research found that the big four networks’ brand equity stabilized despite proliferation of alternatives. The proportion of Americans who would include at least one of the big four networks in their top channels was 77% in 2012, exactly the same proportion as it was last year. The decline in the 2007-2009 period from a peak of 83% appears to have stabilized despite increased competition.

Technical: ‘Must Keep TV’  tracking is an independent syndicated brand tracking survey conducted by Solutions Research Group (SRG) among a representative sample of American consumers. This is the 5th edition of the survey since 2007. The questions have been fielded and presented in the same manner each wave. The 2012 research is based on online interviews with 1,400 American consumers 12+ conducted in early March 2012 – the sample captures and represents all major population segments.

Respondents are shown a list of 73 leading network/cable brands and are asked to identify which ones would be on their ‘must keep TV’ list if they had to choose a limited number. Sample design is balanced by geography, gender and ethnicity, including African-American and English-speaking Hispanics according to known universe parameters. For more information, email rwalton@srgnet.com

As CES 2012 starts for another year, CBC News asked SRG to provide a summary of Canadian market trends from our Digital Life Canada Quarterly studies. The result is a comprehensive feature by Peter Nowak looking at smartphones, tablets, TVs and what the future may hold. Among the key highlights: we are estimating that nearly 3 million Canadians will get their first smartphone in 2012. You can read it here. [image credit: Flickr user soopahgrover]

Apple’s iPad is the most-desired item on holiday season wish lists this season according to SRG’s recent research. Rounding out the top 5 are clothes, a new TV, a laptop and a vacation.

Some interesting trends to note…

• Tablets were by far the top growth category between 2011 and 2010, almost doubling in mentions (+80% growth). iPad mentions accounted for 83% of all tablet mentions, landing the brand in the #1 spot.
• Mobile phones were also a growth category, increasing +23% year-over-year in mentions.  Smartphones accounted for three-in-four mentions in the mobile phone category. Apple’s iPhone had the most mentions by a significant margin over Android and BlackBerry and ended up in the #6 spot on its own.
• As tablets, mobile phones and eReaders boom, some related consumer electronics categories declined somewhat in terms of mentions from last year. Clearly, the consumer has only so much money to spread around all these devices.
  • iPod and MP3 player mentions declined by 21%.
  • New TV mentions declined by 19% (now ranked #3 vs #2 last year).
  • Laptops and desktop PCs combined declined by 11% in mentions.
  • There were slight declines in total mentions of video game consoles and Blu-Ray players as well.

Other notable digital items were GPS devices, Mac computers,  digital cameras and video games; while not in the top 10, these products will also do well this Xmas season.

Overall, SRG found a cautious consumer sentiment leading up to the end of the year. Fifteen percent (15%) of Canadians said they will spend more this year on holiday shopping but 32% said they will spend less and 53% said they will spend about the same. Technical: The results are based on a survey of 1,000 Canadian consumers conducted during the first week of November 2011.

Canadian smartphone users are dying to use their devices more to bank, shop and send money to family and friends.

In fact, well over a third (38%) use a banking app already and those banking this way love it, with 96% of them reporting satisfaction with their mobile banking applications. Why? It’s easy, portable and fast.

For our 2011 MOBILE MONEY & BANKING Report, we surveyed 419 smartphone users in late April to gauge their usage of, and interest in, the various mobile money options in the market now-and ones whose launches are imminent.

In 14 months, the number of Canadians using mobile banking apps on their smartphones went from zero to two and a half million.

Now that they’re turned on to banking on the go, many smartphone-using Canadians would love to go a step further and dump their credit and debit cards in favour of paying from those same accounts, but by smartphone. Near-field-communications will allow smartphone users to simply swipe their handheld past a reader at the retail checkout (like the gas station’s speed pass) in order to pay for purchases when shopping.

While there remain security concerns, awareness and interest is high among Canadian smart phone users when it comes to paying with their iPhones, BlackBerrys, Androids or other devices.

Unlike many technology innovations where there is a male vs. female gap, interest is basically even by gender (61% among women, 60% among men) and it’s a popular idea across age groups as well. While 66% of the 18-34 set say they are very or somewhat interested in swiping their smart phones to buy things, the number drops only to 65% in the 35-49 group.

To paraphrase some of the survey respondents: “Why carry around a wallet and my smartphone, when I can just carry one?”

But consumers will have to be reassured that this new way of paying is safe since 43% of smartphone users who are not interested in mobile payments say security worries or the loss of their phone are the primary reasons why they dislike the idea.

Survey data also show that iPhone users appear to be more ready than other smartphone owners to go mobile with their money. For example, iPhone users are the real early adopters when it comes to the banking apps as 54% say they use them, as opposed to just 32% of BlackBerry owners.

Also, a large number of smart phone users (72%) also said that having a safe, secure, mobile app to use to send money to friends and family would be useful.

The research suggests that this is a market segment poised for phenomenal growth and presents significant growth opportunities to the banking and mobile sector; many Canadians are already using mobile money apps now and appear to be primed for even more.

Technical: The report is based on a study of 419 smartphone users in late April 2011. To be eligible for the research, the respondents had to have a data plan for their smartphone. The purpose of the research was to understand the emerging mobile money and banking market via smartphones. All respondents were 18 years of age or older and drawn from national online panel representative of the English-speaking smartphone owner population in Canada. For more information about the full report and subscription information, please email rwalton@srgnet.com

ABC is back on top as the leading ‘must keep’ TV brand in the U.S. and even potential cord-cutters have their list of networks and cable channels they can’t do without, according to the latest edition of our “Must Keep TV” report.

The fourth edition of the independent tracking survey is based on interviews with 1,400 American consumers 12+ in early March 2011. It reveals what TV brands consumers just must have, the ones which are gaining in popularity and others that are slipping.

ABC was identified as the top “must-keep” TV brand (by 47% of all respondents interviewed), narrowly beating CBS, FOX, and NBC.

However, while the four big broadcast networks remain the most important TV brands for viewers, the number of Americans who include at least one in their set of ‘must keep’ channels is down to 77% in 2011 from 83% in 2007. The percentage including at least two networks is now 51%, down 9 points from its benchmark level of 60% in 2007. Eighty-four percent of 50+ Americans include at least one network as part of their essential channels, compared to only 68% of those 20-29.

On the cable side, ESPN is the top cable brand again this year, following the four major networks. Discovery, Food, History, USA and TNT round out the 2011 Top 10.

For the first time since 2007, HBO failed to make the top 10 most powerful TV brands in the U.S. (now ranked #13), while TNT jumped into the top 10, up two spots from #12 in 2009. Besides TNT, the top movers were: Disney, Lifetime and National Geographic.

Drilling down into demographic splits, ABC stayed #1 among 18-49 year-olds. The top five cable nets in the 18-49 in 2011 were: ESPN, Discovery, Food, History and Comedy Central. CNN was the top news “must keep” brand coming in at #22 for 18-49s versus Fox News at #32.

Driven by the popularity of Jersey Shore, MTV showed gains across the board, rising 10 spots to #23 among 18-49 year-olds and to #11 for the 18-34 crowd. Food Network also jumped into the top 10 in the 18-34 age category for the first time since 2007.

When it comes to those who identify themselves as potential cord-cutters (those who reported seriously considering dropping their TV subscription sometime over the past six months), even they have TV brands they can’t live without. ABC was the top network potential cord-cutters said they have to keep followed by CBS, FOX and NBC. Rounding out the top 10 among this group were: Discovery, History, ESPN, A&E, Food and Comedy Central.

Technical: ‘Must Keep TV’  tracking is an independent syndicated brand tracking survey conducted by Solutions Research Group (SRG) among a representative sample of American consumers. This is the 4th edition of the survey (2007, ‘08, ‘09, and now ‘11). The questions have been fielded and presented in the same manner each wave. The 2011 research is based on online interviews with 1,400 American consumers 12+ conducted in early March 2011 – the sample captures and represents all major population segments.

Respondents are shown a list of 72 leading network/cable brands and are asked to identify which ones would be on their ‘must keep TV’ list if they had to choose a limited number. Sample design is balanced by geography, gender and ethnicity, including African-American and English-speaking Hispanics according to known universe parameters. For more information, email rwalton@srgnet.com

This just in… According to SRG’s annual tracking of the U.S. digital consumer and households, HD sets are now in 60 million households as of Q1 2011, representing just over 50% of the 114 million TV households.

But not all of these HD sets are being driven by a HD box. HD boxes are in 46 million households which means that about 14 million households have nice HD-capable TVs but are not using those sets to their full capabilities.

In other related metrics… DVRs are in 43 million homes and 31 million homes use cable or IPTV video-on-demand, which is about 60% of homes which have the video-on-demand capability.

The number of U.S. Internet households come in at 86 million at the end of Q1 2011, according to our estimates.

More Canadian TVs are ready for Internet movie content, according to our latest edition of Digital Life Canada quarterly.

Game consoles like XBox 360, PS3 and Wii are in nearly half of Canadian Internet households and of these, over half are Internet enabled and connected to the living room TV for gaming and movies.

And 23% connect a laptop or another computer to their main TVs (8% always, 15% sometimes) when they need to watch something on the big screen.

Combined, this means that over one-third (35%) of the main TVs in Canadian households are connected to the Internet at least some of the time, either via game consoles or laptops, and 47% of online Canadians say that would now prefer to rent movies online than going to the video store (up from 33% saying the same thing only one year ago).

Among online Canadians under 35, a majority (51%) now say they have connected a laptop or an Internet-enabled game console to their TVs.

This is good news for Netflix and movie studios looking for additional online opportunities to monetize their content.

According to the study, 80% of Canadians are aware of Netflix and 8% of these used the free trial at some point; Netflix is expecting to cross the 1 million paying subscriber threshold by this summer.

The recently-launched Cineplex movie downloading service was familiar to just 17% of online Canadians and fewer than one-in-ten of those used the service.

In other findings:

• When asked what content they watched when they connect their laptops to a TV, 41% said movies, 25% said TV shows.
• Average age of a laptop/TV viewer was 33; with 70% in the 18-49 age group.
• Internet-connected consoles were more likely to be used for online gaming (57%) but 15% mentioned using the consoles for movie downloads or Netflix streams. Some comments from users:

“I play against other people in the world and stream movies/TV shows from Netflix.‛

“Everything. Video conferencing with friends, viewing Netflix, viewing YouTube, gaming online, downloading updates & game add-ons…”

“Updating console and downloading demo games to try before deciding if I want to buy the game.”

” I use it for connecting to the weather channel for the Wii and for getting Netflix on the PS3…‛

“Gaming, surfing the internet, watching videos, networking, gathering information.”

Technical: These findings come from SRG’s independent Digital Life Canada syndicated study, based on quarterly interviews with 1,000 respondents 12 and older. The latest round of interviews were conducted in early January 2011.