2008 Convergence Survey

The fourth annual Convergence Consumer Survey, produced by law firm Olswang in conjunction with international research and consulting organisation YouGov, was published at one minute past midnight this morning. When the first survey was undertaken in 2005, YouTube was only a few months old and the BBC's wildly popular iPlayer was only just undertaking its first limited trials.

Right: Fluffy was desperate to get on to iPlayer, but where on earth did Mr & Mrs Brown hide at confounded mouse?

Three years on -- and less than a year since its full public launch -- the iPlayer has delivered more than 248 million items of previously-broadcast televised content to a subsequent computer audience. This is but one example of the way in which, in today's "Digital Britain", convergence is finally having a real impact on the consumer.

In previous years, the survey revealed how consumers responded to a vision of a future that is now very much in the present. Now, rather than asking consumers what they thought they might like to do in the future, the survey has sought to explore in detail how consumers actually use the technologies available today and, having experienced the iPlayer and similar services, how they want these services to develop.

In addition to undertaking an independent quantitative survey of 1,162 respondents, the survey created a series of focus groups, to gain further insight into the behaviour of consumers. This exercise enabled the survey to gauge the attitudes and experiences of four demographic groups (referred to, for convenience's sake, as the Kids, the Tech Vanguard, the Mainstream and the Laggards).

Left: Tigger never quite mastered the art of downloading his favourite music on to his cellphone

Within Olswang, the impetus that drives the annual survey comes from media and communications partners John Enser and Matthew Phillips (no relation of any member of the IPKat team ...), to each of whom the Kat says thanks for some enjoyingly non-legal -- and sometimes highly entertaining -- material that reflects reality as seen by ultimate consumers rather than IP owners, those who deliver their products [and, Merpel wonders, those on whose legal advice they rely?].

You can download all 55 pages of the Convergence Consumer Survey here.