More Briefs: Milestones and Stats

Some more brief notes from various research reports

• ComScore is reporting that Amazon's Fire tablet now accounts for more than half of all Android OS tablets. In second place is the Samsung Galaxy with 15% of the market.Source -  Kindle Fire Claims More Than Half Android Tablet Market, Online Media Daily
• Research from Accenture suggests the effort to push the social TV concept is working - 64% of their sample of U.S. Consumers remember seeing social media symbols on TV programming, and a third used social media when seeing the symbols.
  "Social media and social networking are exploding across television screens as networks use social media to enable audiences to interact directly with related content for a richer viewing experience," said Robin Murdoch, Accenture's global Internet segment managing director.
  Source -  TV-driven social media interaction popular among U.S. viewers, says survey,  Broadcast Engineering
• A post on the TVNewsCheck blog reports on the growing integration of social media in local broadcast news operations in the U.S. “Social media is indeed the more effective, efficient means of engagement,” says Jaime Spencer, a VP at Frank N. Magid Associates.
  Source - Status Of Social Media Rising At TV Stations, TVNewsCheck
• A Sandvine report indicates that Netflix's streaming traffic has grown by 30% over the last six months.  Looking at Netflix's impact in other ways,  Netflix streams account for about one-third of capacity infrastructure costs for broadband providers, 32.9% of Internet traffic during primetime hours, and 24.4% of total Internet traffic volume. YouTube is the second largest source of peak traffic, accounting for 13.8% of downstream traffic.  Looking at mobile data traffic, YouTube is the largest single source of video traffic in every region of the globe; it accounts for 23.4% of daily traffic on mobile networks.
  Source - Netflix Streaming Traffic Grew 30% In Last Six Months: Study,  Multichannel News
• Half (53%) of online video viewers in an Accenture survey felt there were too many ads during shows. They were also often frustrated with the time it takes to buffer or start online videos.  When asked what they'd be willing to pay for, top responses were reduced ad loads (35%) and higher quality content (35%).  Accenture summarize: "there appears to be a point at which the trade-off between free content and frequency of commercials becomes unpalatable."
  Source - Half of Online Video Viewers Say There Are Too Many Ads,  VidBlog
• A story in the LA Times reported that Microsoft indicated that U.S. consumers now use their Xbox Live service more for entertainment purposes than for multiplayer gaming.  The general manager for Xbox Live entertainment and advertising told attendees at a conference on digital content that "When Xbox Live started 10 years ago, what it was all about was multiplayer gaming. Now, Xbox Live really is an all-in-one entertainment platform."  He added that Microsoft had struck more than 50 content deals in recent months.
  Source - VideoDaily Roundup: Xbox Live Usage Outstrips Multiplayer Gaming in U.S.,  Online Media Daily
• There's been significant consolidation in China's Web video advertising market.  Last month, China's top video site Youku bought out the #2 site, Tudou Holdings for a reported $1 billion.  Subsequently, Tencent Holdings, Sohu.com (#3), and Baidu (#4) announced that they would join forces in offering video services.
  Source - VideoDaily Roundup: Xbox Live Usage Outstrips Multiplayer Gaming in U.S.,  Online Media Daily
• A report by analytics firm Distimo calls Instagram "a new kind of social network -- one that is build from an app."  The report argues that both the size of Instragram's international user base and the increasing number of mobile applications integrating the service  set it apart from the typical social media service.  Over the last year, U.S. downloads increased sevenfold, and shares from Instagram to Twitter increased twelvefold.
  Source -  Distimo: Instagram's growth heralds 'a new kind of social network'  Fierce Mobile Content