Broadband-media consumers fall into distinct categories

A new Nielsen study focused on broadband-media consumers reveals that these folks are hardly a homogeneous group of gizmo geeks. Because who they are and how they get involved with broadband media can help advertisers and producers figure out how best to market their products, Nielsen did a deep dive into data and came up with eight distinct categories of such consumers. Far ahead of the tech-adoption curve is what the study terms "extreme techies": tech innovators at the forefront of adoption behavior. Watching as much as 91 minutes of online video content in an average week, they represent 8% of the adult broadband population in the U.S., or 4.6 million viewers. A good majority watch TV online in addition to regular TV viewing (64%) and have specific targets for online video content (60%). They also own an average of four cross-platform devices, such as console gaming systems and cell phones, to view TV or movie content, with 38% also having connected TV sets to their computers. These extreme techies are chiefly male (63%), with a mean age of 31 and an average annual household income of $67,000. Also, nearly half (47%) are married, and 57% have children younger than 18 at home.