Tablet users prefer print over video; are reluctant to pay for content

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/10/24/technology-tablets-news-reading.html?cmp=rss

Snippets:

“Tablet users are more avid news readers than the general public and many read even more news after getting one of the devices, a new study suggests.”

“Of 300 who were asked in a web survey about their reading habits in the past week, 88 per cent said they had read a long-form article during that time and 53 per cent said they did that at least daily. A majority (55 per cent) preferred to read longer articles on their tablets, compared with 22 per cent who preferred print magazines or newspapers and 20 per cent who preferred desktop or laptop computers.  “This is pretty good evidence that people think of the tablet as a perfectly fine way of

• “Tablet users spend an average of one hour and 35 minutes daily using the devices.
• Fifty-three per cent of tablet users consume news on their tablet daily, making it the third most popular activity on the devices after web browsing (done by 67 per cent daily) and checking email (done by 54 per cent of users daily.) It is far more popular than social networking, gaming or reading books.
• Seventy-one per cent of tablet users prefer reading and listening to news over watching it. Rosenstiel said this may be due in part to the fact that the iPad doesn’t support Flash, a popular video format. Just 45 per cent of U.S. adults overall prefer reading and listening to news over watching it.
• Only 14 per cent have paid directly for news content on their tablets, although 23 per cent have a subscription to a print newspaper or magazine that includes digital access. However, among those who have not paid directly for content, only 21 per cent would be willing to spend $5 per month to access their favourite source on the tablet.
• Twice as many news-reading tablet users (40 per cent) prefer to get news mainly using a web browser than through a news app (21 per cent). Thirty-one per cent use both equally.
• Ninety per cent of news-reading tablet users say they consume news on the tablet that they used to get in other ways, especially via their desktop computer.”

Stephen