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In Two Separate Studies to Publish Tomorrow

- Industry's First Mobile Entertainment Benchmark Study & Video Game Study to Highlight Customer Segments, Spending and Behavioral Patterns, Focusing on the Challenges and Opportunities Amidst Today's Entertainment Choices

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the success of Nielsen Entertainment's first Video Game Benchmark Report, the first Benchmarking the Active Gamer study and the first Benchmarking Mobile Entertainment report will be released tomorrow, sizing each marketplace highlighting consumer-level data on Video Game and Mobile Entertainment behavior and purchasing. Both reports were designed to deliver Actionable Entertainment Intelligence on consumer attitudes and usage insights.

The two separate reports, each one surveying over 2,000 consumers engaged actively in either video games or in their use of mobile services were surveyed online in September 2005 and results were weighted and projected to the United States population through a national probability sample frame using random digital dial methodology. Subjects such as the impact of expanding demographics, average and competitive entertainment spending amidst the total landscape of entertainment spending, awareness, attitudes and purchase interest in new consoles, platforms, and devices, service and genre preferences, influential sources of information and psychodemographic segmentation is revealed in each report.

Said Andy Wing, President and CEO of Nielsen Entertainment: "The inter-connection between video games and mobile devices is undeniable given consumer demand for flexibility. High technology adopters are more likely to use the internet, use their cell phones and play video games spending greater amounts of time and money on these media. The details revealed in these reports raise actionable items for marketers and developers alike and the result is clear: "emerging" media, they are no longer. Games and Mobile entertainment have arrived as powerful channels to consumers and influencers of our culture."

Benchmarking Mobile Entertainment

With the advent of location-based content, advertising and commerce services and significant licensing deals, the mobile entertainment marketplace is poised for unprecedented growth throughout the next year as media companies test and refine new business models. Nielsen Entertainment's Mobile Entertainment Consumer Benchmarking Study was designed to provide a guidepost to help interested companies navigate the evolving picture and put forth a comprehensive picture of the marketplace, the consumer, and the competition for leisure time and money. Highlights from the Mobile Benchmark Report include:

-- Turnover Equals Opportunity: 52% of mobile phone users will buy a new
phone within the year with 37% claiming additional features will figure
prominently in their decision making process

-- Mobile Atop Media: On average, active mobile phone consumers report
spending 17 hours on their phones per week, 13 talking and 4 on data
services, surpassing music, video games, movie going and home
entertainment

-- Mobile Girls are over TVs: Young females are on their mobile phone 23.5
hours per week on average, more time than the 20.9 hours they report
watching television

-- Following the Money: Topping all entertainment expenditures for share
of wallet, mobile phone users spend $57.50 each month on their phone
and related services

-- Mass Market, Mass Medium: 85% or 144 million 13-54 year-olds are mobile
phone users

-- Cutting the Cord: One in seven mobile phone users have no home landline
and 35% consider their mobile phone to be their primary phone

-- Nickels and Dimes: Of the mobile consumers polled, 60% said they pay
for text messaging; 48% for custom ring tones; and 22% for games

-- Music Madness: One in five (21%) teens downloaded at least 10 ringtones
in the last three months, including one in eight (12%) who downloaded
15 or more

-- Multiple Dominant Brands: Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and LG are cited as
top hardware providers while Verizon, Cingular, Sprint Nextel and
TMobile are cited as top service providers

-- Gamers Agree: Women and men share the preference to play board, card
and puzzle games on their mobile phones

Said Emily Della Maggiora, VP Nielsen Interactive Entertainment: "The direct-to-consumer opportunity afforded by the broad penetration of phones, over 50% hardware turnover and the consumer's increasing desire for mobile entertainment, sets the perfect stage for exponential growth in the mobile entertainment marketplace. There is tremendous momentum for hardware companies, aggregators and service providers at this tipping point of mobile entertainment."

Video Game Benchmark Report

Since Nielsen Entertainment's first report on video games earlier this year, our focus has shifted to the active gamer, qualified by owning a console and spending at least one hour a week playing on it. Still, what has emerged in this first look at the active gamer, are some surprises, about how the active gamer defines "games," identifying a games category with gender parity, the rising importance of MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online), and attitudes on the connection of games to mobile devices.

Among the key findings, evidence that:

-- Wait and See: Many active gamers appear to be in a holding pattern,
before making a purchase decision on next-generation consoles, with
nearly 50% of active gamers stating they will likely wait until both
the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are released before making a final decision

-- Xbox 360 vs. PS3: While most are taking the wait and see approach,
those that own and prefer Xbox are more likely to buy Xbox 360 than
those that own and prefer PS2 are to buy the PS3

-- Moving Online: 57% of active gamers have played online with free casual
online games the most used and a notable 21% having played MMO games

-- Women are Playing: While online-enabled console, MMO and gambling
gamers are disproportionately male -- 76% vs. 24% -- casual gamers who
play free online games such as puzzles are just as likely to be women
as men, 49% vs. 51% respectively

-- Good Scores on Mobile Gaming: 18% of active gamers have downloaded a
game to their cell phone, with nearly two-thirds (63%) rating their
experience from good to excellent

-- Jock Games Rule: Traditional Sports is the most preferred game genre
followed by Role Playing and First-Person Shooter

-- Men of Opportunity Value: Males 25-34 and Hispanics represent the most
valuable emerging market for video games with high entertainment
budgets and higher potential than other segments for increased video
game spending

-- Dominating Leisure Time: Nearly 25% of a gamer's leisure time is spent
playing video games, with males playing 12 hours per week on average.

Said Michael Dowling, General Manager, Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, "Games are a part of a broader number of people's leisure time, as evidenced by the findings in our study. Playing video games, once considered the domain of teen boys, has evolved into a medium that is now capable of reaching expanding demographics of gamers, including females, Hispanics and older players. As games continue to increase its share of entertainment leisure time, it's quite possible playing video games will assume a significant role as a common cultural experience, in the way that movies and television do today."

Nielsen Entertainment

Through custom research, consulting and the world's most comprehensive network of entertainment measurement systems, Nielsen Entertainment delivers Actionable Entertainment Intelligence to clients engaged in the business of selling entertainment and trading in the marketplace of our popular culture. Nielsen Entertainment's AEI products give clients unrivaled perspective from which to steer business decisions, providing the measure and the motivation in one package; comparing what the consumer says they do and what they actually do, in any given environment including film, television, music, books, and interactive media.

Nielsen Entertainment is comprised of the following businesses: National Research Group (NRG), EDI and EDI International, Television Services, SoundScan, Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), Music Control, VideoScan, Market Navigator, BookScan, BookData, and Interactive Entertainment, and utilizes the full portfolio of sister companies including Nielsen Media Research (television ratings) and Nielsen NetRatings (internet usage) to deliver a whole media point of view. Nielsen Entertainment is part of VNU (http://www.vnu.com/), a global leader in information services for the media and entertainment industries.

Benchmarking Mobile Entertainment and The Active Gamer Study are available for sale starting today, November 21, 2005. Please contact emily.dellamaggiora@nielsenentertainment.com or 323.860.4608 to order either report.

Source: Nielsen Entertainment

CONTACT: Davina Harilela of Nielsen Entertainment, +1-323-817-1958

Web site: http://www.nielsenmedia.com/
http://www.vnu.com/