I took a statistics class in college, but maybe things have changed. I was taught that to have statistical significance, a survey had to pull from a broad spectrum of the population. Would you poll on the popularity of smoking in the smoking lounge at the airport? Poll on vegetarian vs. steak at a steakhouse? Pop vs. classical at the Met?
So, with a huge chunk of salt, CinemaNow just released the results of a digital download survey, conducted on their website last month. CinemaNow is an online service that sells downloads of movies and TV shows.
Survey says...
In a press release about the survey, CinemaNow reports that downloading movies is far more convenient and eco-friendly than driving to the store. 94% of Americans believe it's environmentally friendlier to download a movie versus renting/buying from the video store. Really??? All of America? Or just 94% of their customers?
Obviously, they're not taking themselves too seriously. This quote was in the report too. "With the hike in gas prices, it's not surprising that a significant
number of movie-lovers are changing old habits like driving down to the
local video store," said Ashley Woodworth, senior vice president of
marketing, CinemaNow. "What surprised me the most about our latest poll
results is how many people thought Christian Bale looked best in his
Batman outfit, since I myself have always been a big fan of Adam West's
retro look."
The report also found that 51% (again, of Americans) have tried burning downloaded content to DVD compared to a mere 18% who connected them to set-top-boxes.
More likely, until every household in America has high-speed broadband connections, retail stores will survive — at least for another year or two.
Surveys are interesting, but only if taken properly. Here's my survey: Who thinks green M&Ms taste best? I do. Cool — according to a new survey, 100% of Americans prefer green M&Ms. Excellent. —Leslie Shapiro
CinemaNow
Photo courtesy of Movies Worth Seeing
