The on-going unprecedented changes being brought about by emerging technologies and new media are continually altering how consumers spend their in-home leisure time and dollars - each a limited resource. It seems that a hot new "market" emerges every few years - cable, home video, pay per view, video games, PCs, satellite dishes, on-line services, DVD - that then competes for audience and revenues.

Centris is both a research tool and an analytical engine. On the research side, the CENTRIS standard battery of questions, the Centris omnibus survey, profiles every sample household's electronics inventory, video entertainment subscriptions, telephone services, software usage and more. A national, random digit dialing (RDD) sample insures reliable survey results. Daily, on-going telephone interviewing results in over 4,000 completed interviews each month - 52,000 nationally projectable interviews each year. Each household record is precisely geo-coded and contains a full range of geographic descriptors, along with local phone carrier, cable franchise and so forth - data which is invaluable for targeting and analytic purposes.

The Centris analytical engine models and tracks over 75 communications, entertainment and technology areas and provides estimates of demand, market changes, market share at local levels of geography. This integrated research capability provides clients with targeted, accessible, timely and projectable data through a suite of informational products built upon a core household inventory.

What makes Centris unique:

Centris omnibus Survey

• Sample Size. The need to profile and evaluate households in an increasingly fragmented environment based on multiple technology ownership and/or geographically isolated competitive markets requires very large sample sizes. Most annual studies utilize a very limiting sample of only 1,000 to 2,000. The CENTRIS sample is 13,000 quarterly and 52,000 annually.
  
• Frequency. Annual or semi-annual surveys cannot accurately gauge trends in a timely manner, nor correlate these trends with the wide variety of time-sensitive activities such as price changes, advertising and promotional campaigns, content availability and programming schedules. A nationally representative sample is fielded every day providing total flexibility for client inserts and re-inserts enabling studies to start and finish as informational needs dictate.
  
• Timeliness. Continual tracking provides information months ahead of annual or even periodic surveys providing up-to-the-minute readings of the marketplace.
  
• Life-Cycle Tracking. In a short period of time, CENTRIS will provide statistically reliable samples for emerging consumer technologies (DBS, web appliance, cellular phone, DVD, and the next "new" thing).
  
• Proprietary, Focussed Survey Vehicle. Most syndicated studies that offer basic media and technology measurement do not provide an opportunity for proprietary add-on questions or for custom data analysis. General Omnibus surveys also do not provide the extensive foundation of media and technology profiling upon which to layer proprietary inserts. Furthermore, the CENTRIS interviewing environment is ideal because the respondent is thinking only about these areas.
  
• Data Integration. CENTRIS provides extensive capabilities to customize and fully exploit survey data (both proprietary and Core Inventory) in conjunction with other client databases and 3rd party geo-demographic information.

Centris Analytical Engine

• Models. Centris models provide estimates of household behavior for every Census block Group in the U.S. These models take into account local factors such as the availability of specific services and the companies providing services.
  
• Provider Detail. Centris models provide estimates of subscribers (where appropriate) by provider. This leads to projections of demand and market share by provider for any Census area (state, county, CBSA, block group) and non Census geographies (Zip, DMA, MSO and telephone service areas).
  
• Time Series. Centris provides estimates of market penetration quarterly for the previous 5 years. This ability to “connect the dots” provides the basis for assessing trends and changes in specific markets.