Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
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Tracking subscription-based
online content
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Table of Contents
How big are selected subscription services and how have
they grown since mid-year 2003?....................................................................................3
How do subscriber numbers compare to registered/opt-in users?...................................4
What types of content do they publish?...........................................................................5
How is online subscription content delivered? .................................................................6
How frequently is subscription content updated?.............................................................7
What formats are used to deliver subscription content? ..................................................8
How many publishers bundle archives or databases with subscriptions? ........................9
How many publishers employ personalization? .............................................................10
What options are offered for term of subscription?........................................................11
How many publishers offer free trial subscriptions?.......................................................12
What is the length of free trials?....................................................................................13
What is the average subscription price by target audience?..........................................14
What is the median subscription price by target audience?...........................................14
What is the average subscription price by publication frequency?.................................15
What is the median subscription price by publication frequency?..................................15
What is the average subscription price by content format? ...........................................16
What is the median subscription price by content format? ............................................16
How do subscription prices differ between monthly and annual terms?.........................17
What is the average subscription price by content category?........................................18
What is the median subscription price by content category? .........................................19
How have subscription prices changed in the last six months? .....................................20
How many publishers by target audience employ auto-billing?......................................21
How many publishers by content category employ auto-billing?....................................22
What are the Tier 1 revenue sources (digital content) employed by publishers? ...........23
What are the Tier 2 revenue sources (advertising) employed by publishers?................24
How many publishers include advertising in their subscription properties/services?......25
What are the Tier 3 revenue sources (product sales) employed by publishers?............26
How many publishers offer free content? ......................................................................27
How many publishers require registration to access free content?................................28
What types of content do publishers provide free?........................................................29
How many free opt-in email newsletters do publishers offer?........................................30
What is the failure rate of subscription properties/services?..........................................31
About The Content Matrix..............................................................................................32
How Big Are Selected Subscription Services And How Have They
Grown Since Mid-year 2003?
Premium Registered
Property Service Subs. Users/Opt-Ins Audience Sector
RealOne.com 1,300,000 345,000,000 Mixed (1)
Yahoo.com 4,900,000 133,000,000 Mixed (2)
MusicMATCH MX 170,000 45,000,000 B-to-C Music/Videos (3)
Ancestry.com 1,500,000 33,000,000 B-to-C Reference (4)
WeatherBug Pro 140,000 30,000,000 B-to-C Weather
IGN/GameSpy 197,000 26,000,000 B-to-C Games (5)
Match.com 939,000 20,000,000 B-to-C Entertainment (6)
Sony Station.com 758,000 13,000,000 B-to-C Games (7)
eDiets.com 189,000 13,000,000 B-to-C Health
MatchNet 170,514 12,300,000 B-to-C Entertainment (8)
NYTimes.com 70,000 11,000,000 Mixed News; Games (9)
CBS Sportsline.com 1,100,000 10,000,000 B-to-C Sports (10)
PlanetOut.com 97,700 3,300,000 B-to-C Entertainment (11)
Morningstar.com 116,000 2,700,000 Mixed Financial
Economist.com 260,000 1,850,000 Mixed Business
EA Games.com 620,000 1,800,000 B-to-C Games (12)
MovieFlix 10,000 1,300,000 B-to-C Music/Videos
Rivals.com 90,000 1,000,000 B-to-C Sports
So. China Morning Post 20,000 733,383 Mixed News
MyComicsPage.com 40,000 700,000 B-to-C Entertainment (13)
ConsumerReports.org 1,350,000 400,000 B-to-C Reference
VersionTracker.com 101,000 285,000 Mixed Computers (14)
StockCharts.com 12,843 52,431 Mixed Financial (15)
Variety.com 36,389 50,000 B-to-B Business (16)
Notes: (1) Total unique registered users for free RealPlayer software; estimated 50 million active users; (2) Active
registered users for Yahoo.com and total subscribers across all premium services, including non-content services; (3)
Total unique registered users of free MusicMATCH Jukebox software; (4) Includes Genealogy.com; (5) Total subscribers
and registered users across all IGN.com and GameSpy.com properties combined; (6) Total subscribers and member
profiles for Match.com, uDate.com and Kiss.com combined; (7) Total subscribers for Station Pass, Everquest, Star Wars
Galaxies and PlanetSide combined; 13+ million station.sony.com registered users; (8) Total subscribers and member
profiles for AmericanSingles.com, CollegeLuv, Glimpse.com and JDate.com combined; (9) Total subscribers for News
Tracker and Premium Crosswords services combined; (10) Subscriber count based on individual paid fantasy sports
teams created during 2003; (11) Total subscribers and active registered users for PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
combined; 1.8+ million member profiles across both properties; (12) Total subscribers for Club Pogo, Sims Online and
Ultima Online combined; 1.8+ million registered users for EA Games and EA Sports combined; (13) Total subscribers for
MyComicsPage.com and Puzzle Society combined; (14) Total subscribers include 34,500 individuals and 66,500 site
license seats; (15) Total subscribers for StockCharts.com and MurphyMorris.com combined; (16) Includes 17,900 print
edition subscribers with access to variety.com premium website
Sports 19%
Financial 16%
Entertainment 15%
Games 8%
Reference 8%
Music / Video 7%
Business 7%
Computers / Technology 4%
Health 2%
Weather 2%
Other 1%
• Sports and financial content remain the most popular categories among publishers;
although the number of properties/services in each category has declined in relative
terms by 15% since year-end 2002, they still account for more than one-third of all
properties/services tracked
• The content categories which have expanded the most include entertainment, which
now accounts for 15% of properties/services tracked (vs. 10% at year-end 2002),
political/current events/news content which has increased to 11% from 9% and
online games/game-related content which has increased to 8% from 4%
60% 54%
46%
40%
20% 16%
13%
8%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
• The Web remains, not surprisingly, the most widely-used means of delivering
subscription-based online content, especially to consumers
• Email continues to increase in popularity among consumer-oriented properties /
services with 46% now delivering at least some premium content via email, up from
37% at year-end 2002; B-to-B properties/services, however, appear to have pulled
back from email somewhat as 72% currently use that delivery method compared to
82% the previous year
• Support for mobile content has changed little since year-end 2002, with only slightly
more than one-in-ten properties/services now offering premium content formatted
specifically for PDAs and other mobile or wireless devices; during 2002 the
proportion of properties/services offering such content had expanded by more than
60%
50%
50%
38%
34%
40%
32%
28%
25%
30%
21%
16%
20%
10%
9%
6%
6%
10%
5%
5%
4%
4%
4%
3%
0%
Intraday Daily Weekly Periodically Event- Other
Driven
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
• User expectations concerning the immediacy of the Internet generally requires that
premium services be updated frequently; the majority of properties/services tracked
continue to be updated at least daily
• The proportion of consumer-oriented properties/services that update their content on
an intraday basis has increased steadily since we began our tracking in mid-2002;
thirty-two percent now add or update content more than once daily compared to
24% at mid-year 2003 and 15% at year-end 2002
• The most-frequently updated properties/services continue to be among those that
target a mixed audience of both consumers and businesses, due primarily to the
large number of news and financial/investment-oriented offerings among that target
audience grouping
60%
40% 32%
27%
20% 12%
8%
5%
2%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
• Text remains overwhelmingly the principal delivery format for premium content
targeted toward each of the individual audience groupings
• The proportion of properties/services that deliver either audio or video content has
declined for the first time since our tracking began in mid-2002; among B-to-C
properties/services, 14% fewer offer streaming/downloadable audio and 13% fewer
offer video or animated 3D content compared to mid-year 2003; similar declines
have occurred among mixed-audience properties/services and for video content
targeted towards B-to-B audiences
• The relative decline in audio/video content results primarily from the increased
number of text-only offerings rather than the failure of previously-tracked multimedia
properties/services
100%
86%
80%
72%
60%
60%
40%
20%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
80%
60%
52%
40% 34%
28%
20%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
• Among all of the properties/services tracked, the proportion that provide at least
some level of personalization in delivering their premium content continues to
increase steadily with 45% doing so now compared to 37% at year-end 2002
• Personalization technology is most common among properties/services that target
consumers, either exclusively (52% employ personalization) or as part of a mixed
audience that also includes businesses (34% employ personalization)
• Although B-to-B properties/services lag behind their consumer-oriented counterparts
in offering personalization features, the proportion that employ these technologies
has increased significantly to 28% compared to 18% at year-end 2002
74%
12 Months 71%
62%
7%
6 Months 16%
13%
11%
3 Months 7%
23%
68%
1 Month 59%
56%
• The most common subscription terms are, predictably, one month and 12 months
• The most notable change in subscription terms since year-end 2002 is a 20%
increase in the proportion of consumer-oriented properties/services that offer a 12-
month term and a 15% increase among properties/services that target a mixed
audience
• The proportion of B-to-B properties/services that offer six month subscription terms
has doubled to16% from 8% during the same period
• Among sports content properties/services, 61% offer alternative subscription terms
keyed to a season or a specific event (e.g., NCAA “March Madness” tournament,
Wimbledon tennis tournament, etc.)
80%
70%
64%
58%
60%
38%
40%
24%
19% 17%
20%
6% 5%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
• Few changes have occurred since mid-year 2003 with regard to properties/services
offering free trial subscriptions
• Among all of the properties/services tracked, approximately one-third offer free
trials, which represents a slight decline compared to mid-year 2003
• Publishers that target a mixed audience remain the most likely to offer free trial
subscriptions (43%)
• Among publishers that offer free trials, the proportion that do not request credit card
details from these new subscribers has declined slowly (but steadily) with less than
7% of properties/services employing this approach now compared to 11% at mid-
year 2003 and 12% at year-end 2002
57%
52%
60%
40%
28%
25%
24%
23%
22%
20%
18%
20%
11%
8%
5%
5%
2%
0%
0%
7 Days 14/15 Days 10 Days 30 Days Other
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
• Shorter trial periods are the most common among the properties/services tracked,
with more than one-half offering free trials of two weeks or less
• Two weeks remains the most common length for free trials offered by publishers,
regardless of target audience
• Among B-to-B and mixed audience properties/services 5% and 11% respectively
now offer 7-day free trials while none did so at mid-year 2003; the proportion of
publishers offering three-day trials has also increased, to 5% among consumer-
oriented properties/services and to 2% among those that target a mixed audience
• Some B-to-B publishers are migrating back towards longer trial periods, with 20%
now offering 30 days free compared to only 6% at mid-year 2003 (which was down
from 29% at year-end 2002)
$109.00
$80
$40 $54.95
$24.95
$9.95 $14.95
$0
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
$0
Intraday Daily Weekly Periodically
$79.95
$80
$64.97
$59.95
$60
$40
$0
Text / Graphics Audio Video
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
Copyright © 2004 by The Intermarket Group L.P. 16
The Content Matrix – April 2004 Ed.
11.00
10.00 9.61
9.00
8.00 7.76
7.00
6.43
6.00
5.00
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
• The average differential between annual subscription prices and annualized monthly
prices has declined significantly since mid-year 2003, which means that the cost of
monthly subscriptions have moved closer to the cost of their annual counterparts;
this differential had previously increased steadily since our tracking began in 2002
• Among properties/services that target consumers, the average annual subscription
price is now 6.43 times the single-month rate, down from 7.22 at mid-year 2003 and
6.71 at mid-year 2002
• Properties/services that target businesses generally offer the lowest discount for
annual subscriptions, charging an average 9.61 times their single-month rate –
down from 9.06 at mid-year 2003 and 8.92 at mid-year 2002
$198.23
• A comparison of mean and median Financial
$24.95
prices demonstrates the
disproportionate impact that higher- $49.95
Sports
priced properties/services have on $6.95
several content categories
$75.00
• The overall median 12-month Reference
$12.95
subscription prices in the
computers/technology and reference $49.95
Music / Video
content categories are less than one- $9.95
half of their respective mean prices
Political / Current $54.95
and several other categories are 40-
Events / News $6.25
50% lower
• As with mean prices, the overall $150.00
Business
median prices for sports, weather, $17.98
games and game-related properties/
$69.99
services have declined since mid-year Entertainment
$17.92
2003; similarly, the overall median
prices for music/video and Computers / $49.95
entertainment content have both Technology $22.50
increased as have their respective
mean prices $94.48
Health
$14.95
• The overall median prices for both
reference and financial properties/ $45.90
services have increased since mid- Games
$9.95
year 2003 despite a decline in the
overall mean price for each content $39.99
Weather
category $8.47
Increased
No Change In Pricing
Pricing (12%)
(83%)
Decreased
Pricing
(5%)
• Among 417 active properties/services tracked in the previous Content Matrix (July
2003 ed.), 83% of those still available today continue to charge the same prices as
they did at mid-year 2003
• Twelve percent of those same 417 properties/services have increased their prices
by an average of 43% since mid-year 2003; this translates in dollar-terms to about
$7.30 per month
• Five percent – including several sports-related properties/services – reduced their
prices by an average of 22%, or the equivalent of approximately $3.32 per month;
pricing for sports-related content remains under pressure more so than most other
sectors
100%
85%
80% 74%
66%
60%
40%
20%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
Weather 100%
Entertainment 98%
Health 92%
Games 90%
Financial 85%
Reference 78%
Business 68%
Sports 38%
• Among seven out of the 11 principal content categories tracked, more than 80% of
properties/services employ auto-billing, the same as at mid-year 2003
• The specific categories, however, have shifted somewhat with the proportion of
computers/technology and sports properties/services that auto-bill decreasing while
websites in most other categories have increased their use of auto-billing
• Sports content properties/service remain the least-likely to employ auto-billing,
primarily because of auto-billing’s incompatibility with subscription offerings
designed around sports seasons where play takes place only part of the year
What Are The Tier 1 Revenue Sources (Digital Content) Employed By Publishers?
Percent of all active properties/services tracked within each target audience grouping
82%
Website Advertising 79%
67%
60%
Email Newsletter
60%
Advertising
43%
13%
Classified
31%
Advertising
6%
• “Tier 2” revenue sources are those related to the sale of online advertising
• Website advertising is, not surprisingly, the most widely embraced Tier 2 revenue
source, with more than three-quarters (77%) of properties/services deriving at least
some income from it
• Properties/services in the financial, sports, news, computers/technology, business
and online game/game-related content categories are the most likely to generate
advertising-related revenue (more than 75% of the properties/services in each
category do so)
• The proportion of properties/services that generate revenue from the sale of
advertising in their email newsletters has declined since mid-year 2003 to 43% from
48% among B-to-B sites and among sites targeting a mixed audience to 60% from
69%
60% 66%
57%
40%
33%
21%
16% 18%
20%
10%
2%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
Source: Intermarket Group, Content Matrix Service, April 2004
• Properties/services that target consumers are the most likely to carry no advertising,
with one-third of them ad-free
• Advertising is found most frequently on properties/services targeting a mixed
audience, where more than four-in-five (82%) carry advertising in either free areas
or in both free and subscriber-only areas; the proportion that limit advertising
exclusively to their free content areas has tripled to 16% now from 5% at mid-year
2003
• Ad-free subscriber areas continue to have limited popularity among publishers
overall, with only 10% of consumer-oriented properties/services inserting ads
exclusively in free areas – compared to 6% one year ago – and 2% of B-to-B
properties/services doing so now versus 3% at year-end 2002
What Are The Tier 3 Revenue Sources (Product Sales) Employed By Publishers?
Percent of all active properties/services tracked within each target audience grouping
34%
Merchandise Sales 22%
55%
42%
Books / Videos /
40%
DVDs
46%
14%
Online/Offline
22%
Events
15%
• “Tier 3” revenue sources are those related to the sale of physical products/services
in addition to online events -- such as “webinars” and online courses – or offline
events
• The sale of books and other types of hardcopy content such as DVDs and video
tapes are the most common source of Tier 3 revenues
• Sales of merchandise is most common among properties/services in the sports,
weather, health, reference and online game/game-related content categories (more
than one-half of the properties/services in each category)
• Publishers in the sports, entertainment, computers/technology, business and
financial content categories are the most likely to derive revenue from online and/or
offline events (more than 10% of the properties/services in each category)
100%
92%
80% 88% 87%
60%
40%
20%
0%
B-to-C B-to-B Mixed Audience
80%
63%
55% 57%
60%
35% 37%
40%
22%
20% 15%
10%
6%
0%
Required For All Free Required For Select No Registration
Content/Services Free Content/Services Required
• The majority of properties/services that offer free content also require visitors to
register before they can access at least some portion of that content
• Properties/services that target consumers remain the most likely to employ at least
limited registration requirements; among B-to-C properties/services, only 22%
require no registration compared to 19% at mid-year 2003 and 28% at year-end
2002
• Opt-in email newsletters are the website service that requires registration most
frequently among those properties/services that wall-off only select content and
services; registration, in this instance, is defined as requiring any details beyond an
email address
• The overall proportion of properties/services that place a registration wall around all
of their free content has changed little since year-end 2002
61%
60%
40% 33%
24%
21%
20%
0%
Website Content Email Newsletter(s) Wireless/PDA Content
• Among the properties/services that offer free content, more than 90% provide at
least some website content at no cost; those targeting consumers are more likely to
do so than those targeting businesses (98% vs. 92%)
• Free opt-in email newsletters are widely available among the properties/services
tracked, with approximately three-in-four producing at least one such publication,
however, the proportion of B-to-C properties/services who do so has declined to
61% from 72% at mid-year 2003 and 70% at year-end 2002
• Content formatted specifically for PDAs and other mobile or wireless devices has
declined across all target audience groupings, but most noticeably among B-to-B
properties/services where support has dropped to 24% from 31% at mid-year 2003
and 33% at year-end 2002
Merged /
Superceded /
Restructured
(9%)
Discontinued or
Substantially Shut Down
Unchanged (11%)
(79%)
Online-only A majority of the properties/services (73%) are available exclusively via the Internet, 8%
19%
Supplement are designed to supplement a hardcopy publication or other offline property and 19%
Alternative can serve as an alternative to an offline counterpart. Publishers that provide online
counterparts for their hardcopy publications, but do not produce exclusive online content
– such as many B-to-B newsletter publishers – are not covered.
8%
73% Sixty-four percent of the properties/services tracked are targeted to consumers, 10% to
business users and 26% are designed for both consumers and business users.
All data presented in The Content Matrix is based on surveys of each publisher’s
website(s) and on data gathered directly from many of the publishers during January
through early April 2004. Data on the number of subscribers and registered users,
Target Audiences when available, is obtained directly from each publisher. Subscriber numbers are
Both generally based on individual paid subscriptions plus specific seats licensed under site
26% licensing programs; licensing arrangements that do not specifically identify the number
of seats covered are each counted as one subscriber.
B2C
64% In compiling The Content Matrix, we’ve generally defined “content” as any one of the
B2B following: (i) news and analysis; (ii) entertainment, such as music, video, games and e-
10% greeting cards; (iii) information-based services, such as online dating or personal credit
file monitoring services; and (iv) reference material, such as directories, encyclopedias,
or historical databases.
The Content Matrix is published semi-annually, at the new year and at mid-year. For
additional information, visit http://matrix.intermarketgroup.com.