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Industry Trends

With a diverse portfolio of businesses and widely popular brands, Time Warner has strategically positioned itself to lead the fast-changing media industry. We continue to use our scale, brands and creative know-how to grow and maintain our competitive edge and to adapt to and help drive the latest consumer, technological and industry trends.

The following articles and research studies provide further information on issues that are important to our corporate strategy and the operation of our businesses.

Consumer Consumption Trends

 
"Americans Watching More TV Than Ever; Web and Mobile Video Up too," Nielsen, May 20, 2009
Nielsen's three screen report -- TV, internet and mobile - breaks down how much time Americans spend on each of the three screens. Results show that consumers’ time with TV, Internet and Mobile video continues to increase across the board.

Did You Know
"Media Is On Demand - But Content Is Still King," Nielsen, April 2009
"Whoever said “content is king” was prescient. In today’s world, media is an on-demand experience with an array of platforms delivering rich content to on-the-go consumers via multiple devices. The fight for share of wallet is being played out on three screens: mobile, television and the Internet. So far, TV is winning."

  Did You Know
"Cable Looking on the Bright Side," AdAge, Apr. 30, 2009
"Each year, Americans are spending more time watching television, and each year more of that time is spent with cable networks. The industry's investment in original programming, particularly scripted dramas, has generated critical acclaim, fiercely loyal audiences and advertiser respect."

 
"Ads Heighten Pleasure of TV Watching, study finds," Reuters, Feb. 4, 2009
"The finding flies in the face of the Hollywood creative community's assumptions about ads limiting fan appreciation for their shows. Many television showrunners have said that watching their programs on DVD is the ideal way to see them, free from the distracting hindrance of ads."

 
"Media Trends for 2009," Deloitte, Jan. 20, 2009
While the global media sector is expected to be buffeted by grueling macroeconomic conditions in the year to come, we should not forget that the need for the media sector to inform and entertain us remains fundamental."

 
"Why Television Still Shines in a World of Screens," New York Times, February 7, 2009
"...television stands out as the one old-media business with surprising resilience. Though we are spending a record amount of time online, including a record amount of time watching video, we are also watching record amounts of very old-fashioned television, according to Nielsen Media Research."

Did You Know
Google's view on the future of business: An interview with CEO Eric Schmidt
"How the Internet will change the nature of competition, innovation, and company operations." Schmidt explains the success of having a Long Tail strategy while emphasizing that you must have a Head -- which is where the revenue is generated.

Watch the Video Clip
(Launch Interactive)
"Does the Long Tail create bigger hits or smaller ones?," Chris Anderson's Blog, November 15, 2008
"It's hard to make money in the Tail...But revenues are disproportionately in the Head. Perhaps that will never change, but what will change is our definition of the Head. Once that was choice counted in tens or hundreds of items. Now, especially in Google's world, it's counted in tens or hundreds of thousands. Powerlaws may indeed create bigger fish, but the Long Tail is all about the bigger pond."

Identifying the LongTail," Chris Anderson, YouTube
Wired's Chris Anderson explains the logistics of the Long Tail.
(Watch the video Clip)



Watch the Video Clip
"Households' TV viewing at a record," Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2008
With new technology such as digital recorders, television viewing levels increase despite rise in competition from computers. Nielsen study cited.


“Annual Review of Television Audiences,” Turner's Chief Research Office, December 10, 2008
Jack Wakshlag's Presentation and Annual Review of Television Audiences. Turner Networks highlighted.

The Power of Big Brands
"CW Adds Shows to Text About," New York Times, May 20, 2009
"One broadcast network, CW, is devoting its promotional campaign for the 2009-10 season to the changing nature of TV viewership. The campaign will carry the theme 'TV to talk about,' a line that will change from ad to ad to include iterations like 'TV to text about,' 'blog about,' 'chat about' and even 'tweet about.'"

 
"Box Office Returns Recession Proof So Far", CNBC, April 13, 2009
Box office returns have been recession proof so far, reports CNBC's Julia Boorstin. "The bottom line is that established brands draw devoted fans."

 

Box Office Returns Recession Proof So Far
Watch the video

"Warner Bros. Focuses on Video Games," Financial Times, Feb. 4, 2009
Sales of video games rose 19 per cent in 2008, according to NPD, the research firm. That growth is in contrast to sales of DVDs, which represent the largest part of Warner Bros’ home entertainment business.

 
“Hollywood Looks to ‘Potter,’ Other Film Sequels to Stem Decline,” Bloomberg News, December 30, 2008
"Hollywood’s fortunes may improve next year with the return of proven franchises, including Warner Bros.’ 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,' the sixth in a film series that has generated $1.41 billion in U.S. ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo LLC. Familiar titles may keep theaters filled as the industry faces recession and the risk of an actors strike."

Did You Know
"Online shopping and the Harry Potter effect," New Scientist, Dec. 22, 2008
"...And yet the big sellers have never been bigger. Take the latest Harry Potter book, which on launch in 2007 sold 11 million copies in its first day, exceeding the record for the fastest-selling book - set consecutively by the previous three Potter tomes. So what's the real deal? Is the internet really broadening our horizons? Or is it all marketing fluff masking the fact that best-sellers still rule?""

 
Dark Knight sets Blu-ray record,” Video Business, December 11, 2008
“The big titles continue to do well,” said Sanders. “The recession does not kill a category. There is more of a flight to quality, where the big titles perform well and the lesser titles perform worse—but the business does not shut down.


"Blockbuster or Bust" Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2009
"Media companies' hit-focused marketing did not emerge in a vacuum. It reflects how consumers make choices. The truth is that consumers prefer blockbusters. Because they are inherently social, people find value in reading the same books and watching the same movies that others do."

Did You Know
"'N.Y. Times' Editor: Good Journalism Is Not Cheap," NPR, December 8, 2008
"Good journalism does not come cheap. And, therefore, you're not going to find a lot of blogs or nonprofit Web sites that are going to build a Baghdad bureau."

Did You Know
"Time Overtakes Cosmo as Big Brand on Campus," Advertising Age, December 2008
College kids like Facebook, Nike, iPod and Time magazine, according to Anderson Analytics' fall survey. 1 magazine, unseating perennial favorite Cosmo and jumping ahead of last year's No. 2, People. CNN.com made it into the top 10 websites for the first time.

“Time Warner’s Back to Its Roots: Content,” Advertising Age, August 11, 2008
"...The company appears to be hunkering down into the business it began with: creating great, commercially valuable content."

Did You Know
"Holy Cash Cow, Batman! Content Is Back at Time Warner," New York Times.com, August 9, 2008
"For now, Mr. Bewkes is staking the company’s future on three big content providers: Warner Bros., Turner Broadcasting (which includes TNT, TBS and CNN) and HBO. To ramp things up on the entertainment front, he’s also been overseeing internal discussions about acquisitions in film and television — including a possible takeover of NBC Universal, should its parent, General Electric, decide to sell, according to executives and bankers who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the discussions."

"Hollywood's White Knight", CNBC, July 21, 2008
A look at what Batman's success means for Hollywood and Time Warner, with CNBC's Julia Boorstin. "This mega performance proves that the market will expand if the content is worth it..."

The Dark Knight
Watch the video
Extending Reach
"Warner Bros. Fights DVD Decline With Old Movies and a New Model," CNBC.com, Mar. 23, 2009
"The company is allowing consumers to access its Warner Archive Collection using a new model that prints DVDs on-demand. Cutting out the middle man, Warner Bros will make higher margins by going directly to consumers. This is exactly the experimentation and innovation the studios need right now to supplement their declining DVD revenue."

 
"Resurrecting the WB as a Web Contender," New York Times, January 4, 2009
"While Warner, a division of Time Warner, has not promoted the site in any multimedia ads, it is drawing about 250,000 unique viewers a month, said MindShare's Mr. Chapman, who has been tracking the site. And some of its original material is being offered on partner sites such as MySpace and Facebook."

"Media Metrics: Reloading the Magazine," MediaPost Publications, November 2008
Coverage of shift from print magazines to online publishing. Includes results from a study done by MediaVest on how consumers' use of online media differed from their use of print media and what factors allow an easy transition for traditional magazines to make to move to the web.


"User-generated video under siege," Fortune, Nov. 21, 2008
Coverage of an increasing trend where major media companies put full-length content on YouTube.