Most successful companies rarely make a move without listening to their customers. One of the people at Hallmark who deploys the listening tools and analyzes the data is Jess Aguirre, a 20-year vet of the family friendly network. And speaking of families, Jess recently aligned Hallmark with the Entertainment Technology Center at USC so the two could study how life stages influence emerging media choices. The study also seeks to spot key consumer trends and how they could influence future entertainment offerings. Jess is a member of several industry associations and is on the board of the Media Ratings Council.

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As I mentioned Tuesday, the growing e-reader market and the new Barnes & Noble “Nook” had me shook.

After all, I’m a book lover and was worried that the ability to share electronic books would mean that traditional books would go the way of newspapers, records and CDs.

Not quite, says KC Blake of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. “I don’t think any e-reader is ever going to fully replace the feeling of turning physical pages,” Blake says.

You can say that again, buddy.

Blake points out that the Nook’s ability to share electronic books is significant because consumers are used to sharing their media.

“If there’s an ability to share your e-books with your friends,” Blake says, “that’s going to be viewed as a competitive advantage for sure.” But while sharing a book is important, so is a book’s “collector appeal,” Blake adds.

“A book is viewed as educational and there’s some intrinsic value in just having this knowledge sitting on a shelf,” Blake
says.

So does this mean that I will still be able to go to the library and bookstore to borrow and buy real books in the near
future?

“I don’t think books are going away anytime soon,” Blake says. “I’m not sure that books will ever go away.”

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With the help of the Entertainment Technology Center, studios are engineering an interoperable digital master format (IMF) to further boost their digital businesses. Studios would seriously simplify — and save money on — the distribution process with one movie file, instead of 250, that could be delivered to fit most digital retailers.

Based at the U. of Southern California, the ETC has been overseeing regular studio meetings toward this IMF goal. The ETC expects to create a master specification by early 2010, having already completed more than half the work by September.

“We have an outline for all the necessary components required to make the IMF work,” says David Wertheimer, ETC executive director. “We are all pleased with the progress. Everyone wants more efficiency in the system. This will definitely take what is now a highly people-intensive, manual process into something that is automatic, predictable and reliable. Studios want to make it easier to get content out as broadly as possible to as many companies that provide digital entertainment.”

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Entertainment Technology@CES 3D for the home, over-the-top services and mobile distribution of content are some of the most pressing issues and opportunities facing the entertainment industry. The Entertainment Technology Center brings together the major Hollywood studios, consumer electronics and technology/services companies to collaborate on solutions for next-generation content delivery. Senior executives from the content and CE industries will discuss the future of entertainment creation, distribution and consumption. — Link to PDF

“For 3D to be truly mass-market consumers will want not only movies and games but also live events, sports, and other programming,” such as nature films, says David Wertheimer, who heads the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center. (The ETC receives funding from the tech companies.)

So what do consumers want? Wertheimer’s ETC and the Consumer Electronics Assn. published a survey in February that helps to answer that question. It found, for instance, that consumers would be willing to pay a premium–but not a big one–for a 3D-capable TV: $150 to $200 more than one that only handles 2D images. More importantly, the survey results showed that only 16% of adults were interested in watching 3D movies or TV shows at home. Among video gamers, there were even fewer supporters–12%. But consumers who have been to a 3D movie are more likely to try to see other movies in 3D—and to want a 3D-ready DVD player and TV for home. Ditto for glasses: Those who had worn the glasses in theaters were less opposed to the idea of doing so at home.

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