Oslo, Norway — More people have access to a music streaming service, more listen to music through streaming, more are willing to pay and an increasing amount believe that streaming will be the dominant way to play music in 2-4 years. The youngest generation, those under 30 lead the way.

New numbers are from a survey conducted in June for music streaming service WiMP, who runs the survey twice a year in its current markets, this time Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

According to the survey results, Norwegians are the most likely to have access to a streaming service, 61% say they do, against 56% in Sweden, 35% in Denmark and 16% in Germany. Numbers have increased in all Scandinavian countries.

While the highest amount of Norwegians stated they have access to a streaming service, most Swedes said they in fact listened to music through streaming during last week. More than one in three said they did so. The usage numbers also continue to increase in all countries, with Norway showing the largest increase in percentage points from 20% one year ago to 31% now. Danish numbers increased in the same period from 14% to 22% while of Germans (new) 16% said they did.

Willingness to pay increased in parallel with access and usage and Swedes, who’s had access to streaming services the longest, are on top of the list with 36% saying ‘Yes’, followed by Norwegians (33%), Germans (25%) and Danes (14%). Especially in Norway, this share is steadily increasing, from 25% last year and 30% in January. The share who says ‘Maybe, it depends on the service’ also increased from 24% to 32%, while the share who said ‘No’ reduced as much as 16 percentage points from 51% last June to 35% this year.

“It’s very promising that willingness to pay continue to increase, and we are convinced that this is connected to perceived value and quality of the service,” says Global Editorial Manager for WiMP Thor Martin Jensen. “Therefore, for WiMP, this is all about making music available, and inspiring users to listen even more.”

A new question in this edition of the survey was related to willingness to pay more for additional features or services. In average, 6 of 10 said ‘Yes’ to pay for either improved sound quality, offline content, access on additional devices, concert tickets, fan info etc.

When asked what way to distribute music that will be dominating in 2-4 years, 65% of Swedes, 64% of Norwegians, 51% of Danes and 33% of Germanys now answer streaming. Only the Germans still believe in download (42%). 87% of young Swedes under 30 years of age believe streaming will be the dominant way to play music in 2-4 years and the youngest age group is leading the development. All numbers for streaming are the highest in this group, with 86% of young Swedes having access to a streaming service, 61% listening to music from streaming last week and 67% saying ‘Yes’ to pay for a streaming service.

More than half of young Swedes and Norwegian also state they download less music illegally after having gained access to a music streaming service.

The survey was conducted by Respons Analyse for WiMP, with one thousand people in each country answering an online survey in June 2012. The survey was conducted in Norway, Sweden, Denmark andGermany with a total of 4000 respondents. Previous editions of the survey has been conducted by Norstat for WiMP.

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Ottawa, Canada – The Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) is pleased to announce its broadcast agreement with Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium and its partners to provide Canadian coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games – in addition to the live, up-to-the minute Team Canada results, photos, videos, schedules and news that will be available on www.paralympic.ca every day of the Games.

“We are extremely pleased with the broadcast coverage plan for the London 2012 Paralympic Games,” said Henry Storgaard, CEO of the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “The Consortium and its partners are providing more hours of coverage in Canada than any other previous Paralympic Summer Games broadcaster. It is important that these performances are available so Canadians across the country can watch and cheer some of Canada’s best athletes!”

“We are very happy to share the stories of Paralympic athletes with Canadians during this all-important time for amateur sports,” added Adam Ashton, President, Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. “We know the Canadian public will be eager to cheer on Team Canada as they take on the world in London.”

Online Streaming

For the first time in history, Canadians can watch live multiple online streams of Paralympic Summer Games throughout the 12 days of competition. Five digital streams will offer a total of 580 hours of live coverage. Three feeds will offer daily uninterrupted coverage of swimming, wheelchair basketball, and athletics, while two additional channels will cover a range of sports and a will show a “best of” coverage from the day. All digital channels can be accessed from CTVParalympics.ca and RDSparalympiques.ca.

In addition to the live streaming, the Consortium’s digital coverage also includes a comprehensive video on demand and Paralympic news library available online and via mobile platforms.

Television

Daily highlights will be broadcast from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST showcasing the day’s performances, medal winners, athlete interviews and event features. Complete coverage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will also be available on several networks including TSN2, Sportsnet One, RDS, and RDS2. A complete television broadcast schedule will be published in August.

Additionally, two of the features from the Consortium’s Difference Makers series will feature Paralympians. Hosted by Rick Hansen (English) and Chantal Petitclerc (French), the series asks elite athletes to reveal inspiring stories of those who made a difference in their lives.

Website and Social Media

Supporting the online streaming and television broadcast initiatives will be athlete biographies, competition updates, results and photos on both Paralympic.ca and CTVParalympics.ca/RDSparalympiques.ca.

In addition, the CPC partnered with the Consortium earlier this year to create its London 2012 Paralympic Games promotional campaign, Super Athletes. The Super Athlete spots are a dramatic and edgy look at some of Canada’s best Paralympians in short vignettes identified by the nickname of the featured athlete. Examples include: The Shark, The Heat, The Professor and The Pit Bull. To view the entire library of Super Athlete videos visit www.Paralympic.ca/superathletes.

Canadians can also stay connected through the CPC’s Twitter and Facebook accounts@CDNParalympics and facebook.com/CDNParalympics.

The Team Canada Today Newsletter will be produced and available for download on the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s website each and every day of the Games. Users can sign up for the newsletter distribution here: http://paralympic.ca/en/London-2012/2012-News.html.

Image Courtesy of  CHEN WS / Shutterstock.com

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As of November, Netflix’s shares closed at $64.92, a gaping fall from a high of $304.79 in July. The jaw-dropping descent of the popular American DVD-rental and online video streaming service, is attributed to a number of egregious errors committed by the company this year.

With 24.59 million members in the United States and Canada, Netflix is an Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows online. It also offers a DVD rental service for an additional $2 on top of its basic online streaming plan for $7.99.

According to Tech Crunch, Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, said in May that, “Streaming is the core of our business and it is growing rapidly. Streaming is much bigger than DVD for us in terms of hours of viewing, growth, and focus. We are seeing massive consumer adoption of streaming.”

To capitalise on its streaming business, Netflix introduced a new pricing system in July which separated the two services, with the streaming plan costing $7.99 and the DVD plan also at $7.99. Selecting both options would cost $16, effectively raising the subscription price by 60% for subscribers.

The announcement, however, was met with an unforeseeable backlash as more than 800, 000 irate subscribers defected in protest of the ludicrous price-hike. In attempt to appease customers, Hastings then announced a scheme to spin-off 2 companies for Netflix’s DVD-by-mail rental and on-line streaming services. However, the announcement was promptly retracted when violent objections arose from all sides.

For a company that began its meteoric rise with effortless access to video entertainment, the move was perceived by many as complicating the rental process.Since then, stock prices have continued to careen.

Last week, the company took steps toward raising $400 million from investors to shore up its balance sheet, selling $200 million of common stock to T. Rowe Price funds, and placing $200 million of convertible debt with the investment fund Technology Crossover Ventures. The purpose of raising capital is to finance Netflix’s expansion plans into the UK and Ireland in the first quarter of 2012.

While financially logical, investors saw the move as underlying the foolishness of the company’s stock repurchases earlier in the year at much higher prices, reports Forbes.

With escalating costs in content investment, Netflix has warned that it expects to lose money in 2012. High-cost ventures into UK and Ireland are also likely to cause the company to incur losses on a global basis in the upcoming year. Barron’s reported on Saturday, November 26th, that it looks as if the company will end up making $4.08 this year and might, at best, make a profit of 75 cents in 2012.

In their letter to shareholders dated October 24, 2011, Hastings and CFO, David Wells, defended their new pricing strategy. “We think that the $7.99 for unlimited streaming and $7.99 for DVD are both very aggressively low prices, relative to competition and to the value of the services, and they are right place for Netflix to be in the long term. What we misjudged was how quickly to move there. We compounded the problem with the lack of explanation about the rising cost of expansion of streaming content, and steady DVD costs, so that absent that explanation, many perceived us as greedy,” Wells said.

In the midst of the immediate bleak outlook, however, there is a silver lining. For one, Hastings is right in that the future of video-watching will be digital.

This has significant financial implications for Netflix. Getting rid of the DVD-by-mail business would allow Netflix to eliminate an array of costs associated with infrastructure and focus instead on investing in content. Moreover, with the amount of money that Netflix has invested in acquiring content, the current valuation makes Netflix an attractive acquisition for competitors such as Amazon and Google.

Netflix remains positive that it will bounce back into a profit-reaping cycle, and is planning to recuperate from domestic losses after launching in the UK and Ireland.

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Netflix announced it was planning to split its DVD/Blu-Ray rent by mail and online streaming services back in early September. The mail delivery service was branded as Qwikster and video games would be made available for rent as well. Since then the plan was called off and entry into the video game rental market was put on hold as many customers opposed the split.

Subscribers did not like the idea of having to visit a different website and mange a second account to rent movies or video games. Netflix’s stock price has been steadily dropping since the 60% price hike in July and loss of 800,000 subscribers in the last quarter despite the firm’s profits.

Shareholders were also not happy as Netflix would have to spend millions to launch Qwikster when consumers have already established Netflix as a rent by mail service under the Netflix brand. With Netflix’s missteps that leaves one begging the question, is there a legitimate alternative to Netflix?

Angry Netflix users have been on the lookout for something new and there might just be a replacement depending on their viewing habits. Online streaming services like iTunes and VUDU have no monthly fee but the bill will quickly add up from just a few purchases as each rental will cost around $0.99 to $5.99 depending on what it is.

The content per dollar ratio is probably not what Netflix users are looking for. Amazon Prime Instant video and Hulu Plus are much more viable alternatives as they allow unlimited streaming for a monthly fee.

Amazon Prime has the smallest selection but also has the lowest price at $79 a year, and offered a discounted price for college students that subscribed earlier this year, but Amazon has not stated if it will offer that deal year after year. Amazon Prime also has content for rental much like VUDU and iTunes.

Hulu concentrates more on what is current on television offering a free option that allows users to see five episodes of a show’s current season, movies, and in standard definition. Hulu Plus gives access to full seasons, a better selection of movies, and in high definition for $7.99 a month. Hulu uploads episodes a day after it airs on television giving it an edge over Netflix’s usual 28 day wait.

There really is no widely accepted alternative to Netflix at the moment. For $7.99 a month Netflix offers the biggest online streaming selection in movies and television. Hulu Plus is definitely better than Netflix for television fans but it is the other way around for movie buffs.

As much as people argue which is better to have Hulu Plus or Netflix (even though they have some of the same content available) at the moment they should be considered compliments and not substitutes of each other.

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