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March 01, 2005 07:10 PM US Eastern Timezone

Digital Video Recorders Show Largest National Growth in 2004 -- 119%, Followed by Portable DVD Players -- 83%, and Digital Cameras -- 44%

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2005--
Local Estimates Available for Most CENTRIS(SM) Metrics Through CENTRISplus  

CENTRIS announces its year-end household penetration numbers for various consumer electronics products and household connectivity. Summary statistics are provided below.

                                Millions of
2004 Year-End Estimates              HHs       % of HHs  Annual Growth
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VCR                                   94.8          87%          -2%
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DVD Capable HHs                       80.8          74%         +19%
PC                                    72.9          66%          +3%
DVD Console HHs                       65.9          60%         +34%
Portable DVD Player HHs               20.5          19%         +83%
Console Video Game                    43.9          40%          +2%
Camcorder                             38.5          35%         + 6%
Digital Camera                        33.0          30%         +44%
Broadband                             25.6          23%         +31%
DBS                                   25.2          23%         +13%
Digital Cable                         21.9          20%          +7%
VOD Available                         13.2          12%         +24%
Digital Video Recorder HHs (DVR)       6.5           6%        +119%
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Data reported is based on over 8,000 consumer surveys and is compared to 2003 year-end estimates. Both datasets are derived from the CENTRIS daily Communications, Entertainment and Technology omnibus survey, conducted by RDD telephone. The data reflects household estimates and is based on respondent's recall and perceptions.

Noteworthy Observations

-- Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) enjoyed a very high percentage gain (119%) due to their low installed base, growing by only 3.5 million units. Most of this increase came not from retail but from set-top box DVRs provided by DBS and cable providers.

-- Console DVD, 7 years after launch -- at a price point below $50 -- still showed a one-third increase in its installed base.

-- Reported VOD availability had nearly a one-fourth increase over a year ago. However, there are actually 16+ million VOD-capable households across various MSOs. The reported 13.2 million by consumers is consistent with previous findings in which approximately 20 percent of consumers in VOD-capable areas were not even aware that their cable system offers VOD.

-- VCR penetration is slowly declining.

-- With all of the attention to Video Game Player sales, there has been little growth in the installed base because the vast majority of new players are going into households that already own previous generation players.

-- DBS is clearly winning out over Digital Cable.

CENTRIS has a quarterly tracking of household penetration on most of its core metrics since the inception of the daily tracking service in the Spring of 1997. As each new distribution or major consumer electronics platform is introduced, CENTRIS begins to track it in its Core Battery. "Not only is this critical to keep the Core reflective of the current marketplace," says Jerilyn Kessel, co-founder of CENTRIS, "but it is essential to the trending power of the historical database, the ability to identify and profile the early adopters and the understanding of cannibalization and replacement of one platform by another -- all of which was central to the initial design of CENTRIS." For more details on what consumer products and services CENTRIS tracks, visit http://www.centris.com/

CENTRISplus Local Estimates

This new service provides local area estimates of all CENTRIS metrics at levels as small as a block group, allowing for aggregation to larger geographies, either standard Census, postal, or custom. For example the data can be used to develop estimates for cable franchises, a trade area (surrounding a video store or consumer electronics store, for example), a TV market, a county, a wire-line service area, broadcaster's "A" service contours, etc. "It is in the consumer's backyard where the competition becomes real and the marketing, operations and financial decisions are actionable," according to Professor Paul Rappoport, Director of the CENTRISplus team. Applications are extensive in terms of identifying consumer service choices, cannibalization (for example VOD's impact on DVD rental), impact of local marketing, etc.

About CENTRIS

CENTRIS (www.CENTRIS.com) is a consumer research and information service tracking home entertainment and technology, specializing in the digital and broadband world along with cable, satellite, home video, music, motion pictures, the Internet and other telecommunications services. CENTRIS' primary service is a specialized daily omnibus service that reaches a nationally projectable sample of 1,000+ interviews each week, profiling more than 100 consumer electronics, entertainment, telecommunications and geo-demographic household measures. CENTRIS accommodates proprietary inserts in its omnibus survey along side it's ongoing CORE Battery. In addition, CENTRIS publishes a number of syndicated analytic and database products. CENTRIS is a service of International Communications Research (www.icrsurvey.com), headquartered in the Philadelphia area with an office in Santa Monica.

Contacts
CENTRIS
Lisa Masciale, 310-264-8777