Daily Research News Online no. 4840 - Former Kagan COO Joins Nielsen Entertainment

Former Kagan COO Joins Nielsen Entertainment

November 17 2005

Larry Gerbrandt, former COO and Senior Analyst at Kagan Media, has joined Nielsen Entertainment in the US as Senior VP and Senior Corporate Analyst, reporting to CEO Andy Wing. He will work on strategic analyses of the entertainment industry, including the company's new 'Benchmarking the Digital Household' report.

Previously, Gerbrandt was Director of AlixPartners, a financial advisory firm where he specialised in valuation, consulting and litigation support. Prior to this, he was COO/Senior Analyst of Kagan Media, a media market research company. Here, he oversaw Kagan content, publishing, research, and consulting operations. He has also worked as Operations Manager at Orion Cable Systems, and was founder and producer at Brimstone Films.

In this new role, Gerbrandt will be responsible for producing 'strategy-minded analyses' for entertainment executives. He will draw on data from Nielsen Entertainment's consulting and measurement businesses covering film, TV, live event, music, mobile, and books, as well as data from sister companies Nielsen Media Research and Monitor Plus.

Wing says Gerbrandt is 'the perfect individual to spearhead this effort with experience in all aspects of media analysis and a deep understanding of the entertainment verticals we cover'.

The new 'Benchmarking the Digital Household' report, available from today, explores how US households use media, entertainment, information technologies, and services. It brings together findings from eight years of regular surveys of American households conducted by Nielsen Media Research. Key trends from the analysis include the following.

DVD players, launched only eight years ago, are in 78.5% of households. Cell phones are in 75.9%, and PCs are in 74.2% of homes - with virtually all of those connected to the Internet. 34.3% of all households now have broadband access.
The steepest declines in movie attendance have been in the DVD-owning homes and the broadband-enabled households.
80% of US households subscribe to some combination of multi-channel programming service through cable, telco or satellite providers.
A growing number of households are subscribing to both cable and satellite services - with the percentage almost doubling over the last few years.

'How people obtain, consume and transport entertainment is in a state of transformation,' says Wing. 'While no one knows precisely how these changes will impact content developers and consumers, we are delivering a comprehensive and empirically-derived report on what we see as the challenges and opportunities of our digital future'.

Other reports due in 2005 include the Economics of On-Demand Programming and a series of research studies covering motion pictures and mobile and video games.

In addition to the reports, Nielsen Entertainment provides custom research, consulting and entertainment measurement systems. It is online at www.nielsenmedia.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.