Broadband has broad appeal. Broadband connections for the first time have reached 51% of the American online home population. Young adults and kids are the most frequent users; most seniors are still logging on via narrow band.
This 51% level means 63 million people are accessing the internet via broadband compared to 61 million accessing the internet via narrow band (e.g. dial up) reports Nielsen/Net Ratings.
“Despite a plateau in the growth of U.S. Internet access, we’ve seen continued high double-digit growth in users’ broadband access,” said Marc Ryan, senior NetRatings director and analyst. American home broadband access last year was at 38%. This marketplace grew 13 points in a single year.
Big Impact on Content
Having more than half the homes with broadband (ISDN, Cable modems and DSL) will impact what many companies put on their sites. They are adding more streaming audio and video content that was formerly not convenient for the home user to view or download. Game players are seeing more multi-player graphically rich content being offered.
Expect to see sites using television’s communications techniques. Advertising agencies are a busy and happy group. Several agencies are reportedly working on streaming audio and video commercials intent on capturing our broadband online attention. The advertisers and their agencies imagine us clicking in to the streaming ad to purchase the jacket the actor is wearing or the car she is driving.
Their challenge will be how to keep us from simply fast forwarding through their commercial offering.
Broadband Demographics
The broadband user is most likely to be younger. Younger adults, teens and kids who grew up with PC access are the largest group using broadband at home. They have higher expectations of how fast a page should load than older internet users.
Home broadband surfers are likely to be under age 34. The age group with the most broadband surfers is the 18 to 20 year olds. Fifty eight percent of this group accesses the internet via broadband.
The senior market segment (ages 65 +) still has the lowest number of broadband subscribers. However, over a third (34%) of the senior group now uses broadband to surf the internet.