MUMBAI: US market research firm Scarborough Research, which works in the area of identifying the shopping, media and lifestyle patterns of Americans, has released an analysis of video-on-demand (VOD) users - those consumers who live in households that used VOD during the past month.

The analysis found that VOD users are 27 per cent more likely than all consumers to cite reality programmes as a television genre that they typically watch.

Across America seven per cent of consumers live in a household that used VOD during the past month. VOD users are 24 per cent more likely to tune in to music videos. 22 per cent more likely than all consumers to watch news magazine shows, science fiction (21 per cent more likely) and dramas (18 per cent more likely), round out the top television genres among VOD users as compared to the general population.

Today's VOD users hail from upscale, young families. According to the Scarborough analysis, VOD users are 27 per cent more likely than all consumers to be between the ages 18-24; 20 per cent more likely to have two or more children in the household; and more than twice as likely as all consumers to have an annual household income of more than $150,000. VOD users are 27 per cent more likely than all consumers to be African-American.

VOD users are avid consumers of entertainment and information technologies. VOD users are 50 per cent more likely than all consumers to spend 20 or more hours online weekly. They have high-speed Internet connections, and are more likely than all consumers to have a cable modem, DSL or wireless Internet connection. VOD users are 38 per cent more likely than all consumers nationally to have purchased something on the Internet in the past year. 39 per cent of VOD users use online services for travel reservations and 47 per cent of VOD users use on-line services for news. VOD users are almost three times as likely as all consumers to have purchased pay-per-view (PPV) five or more times during the past year.

When it comes to advertising categories, home improvement is a top category among VOD users. 73 per cent of VOD users live in a household that has bought hardware, building, paint, or lawn and garden items in the past year. They are 15 per cent more likely than all consumers across the US to have spent $3,000 or more on all home improvements in the past year.