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Children from lower-income families spend considerably more time playing video games than their higher-income counterparts, a new study from Jupiter Research shows. Kids from households with an income level below $35,000 per year play games 50 percent more often than those with household incomes reaching $74,00 and above. About the same percentage of high- and low-income teens buy six or more video games per year. The study also found that although teens spend more time playing video games than they do reading books or magazines, television is still ahead of gaming in terms of use. Teens also spend less time gaming than they do listening to the radio or using the internet. Price of games is the most important factor to teens purchasing game consoles, a concern cited by 33 percent. A quarter said ability of a console to play DVDs or CDs is the deciding factor. Only 8 percent said that online gaming ability was important. Twenty-one percent of girls but only 2 percent of boys said they do not play video games at all. Adventure games are most popular among males while females prefer “parlor” games.
Al-Jazeera bests sex as top search term
Any time a query tops “sex” in popularity on the internet, it’s big news. Lycos reports this week that queries relating to al-Jazeera, the Arab television network, outpaced searches for sex by three to one, pushing al-Jazeera (and its many alternate spellings) to the top of the Lycos 50. The war in Iraq stayed steady at No. 3 and American POWs rose to third. The latter fueled much of the traffic to al-Jazeera, which launched a new English-language web site last week but was offline much of the time because of a sustained hacker attack. The term “al-Jazeera” generated as many searches as the Lycos four through 10 terms combined. Those concerned for the safety of POWs weren’t purely looking for voyeuristic video. “Red Cross” and “Geneva Convention” rose to 71 and 95, respectively, on the list. In non-war searches, “Michael Moore” was the most-queried Academy Awards search at No. 22, ahead of Jennifer Lopez, Adrien Brody, Roman Polanski and Halle Berry.
Nielsen//NetRatings starts Hispanic services
Nielsen//NetRatings will begin measuring Hispanic users’ habits soon thanks to a five-year partnership with Univision. Rival web ratings measurer Media Metrix, owned by comScore Networks, began a similar project last year. A panel of roughly 3,600 Hispanics will be used to start the specialized measuring. These users will also be included in other Nielsen//NetRatings data. Hispanics have become the fastest-growing group of online users over the past year. The service will launch in the fourth quarter of 2003. Univision Online is the most-visited Spanish-language destination on the web, according to Nielsen//NetRatings data.
CA pleads: Don't sell cigs to minors over web
California is just figuring out what minors have known for a while – it’s not difficult to buy cigarettes online. The state has filed suit against five web companies caught in a recent sting allowing minors possessing parental credit cards to buy tobacco. The state also cited the companies for failure to pay state excise taxes. The state said that online tobacco companies must go beyond merely asking customers whether they are older than 18 and take further steps to ensure that minors cannot buy cigarettes. California is asking for $1 million in penalties. Wiping out teen smoking has been a major cause in California the past few years, and the suit charges that the companies are trying to compromise such efforts.
Infinity stations push new AOL broadband
Infinity Broadcasting will promote America Online’s new broadband internet package on the air in return for services from the struggling internet service provider. Infinity radio stations across the country will get access to AOL broadband and its news and entertainment services. The stations can use the material on the air, should they desire. AOL’s radio network then will begin including at least five Infinity station streams. The move is part of America Online’s $35 million marketing package for its new broadband package, which was introduced last week.
MSNBC.com partners with Financial Times
The Financial Times has partnered with MSNBC.com in a new deal that will bring some of the paper’s stories to the cable network’s site. MSNBC.com will get up to 15 news stories per day from the Financial Times, focusing mainly on equities and international, global business and markets news. The stories will appear on a co-branded page in the MSNBC.com business section, where additional links to FT.com stories will also appear. MSNBC.com already has similar deals with The Sporting News, E! Online, BET.com, Business Week Online, Budget Travel, The Washington Post and CNet.
April 3, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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