The days when you could cook your breakfast on the top of your energy inefficient TV or set-top box could be over. The EPA has raised the bar on its Energy Star standards by 40 percent beginning in September so if manufacturers want to tap into rebate programs they'd better cut back on the amount of energy their devices consume.
Elsewhere, the FTC is reportedly considering its own energy-related labeling requirements for PCs, cable and satellite set-top boxes, standalone DVRs and computer monitors. That might affect yet another market: those who prefer to watch TV on Internet-connected devices, not TVs.
A Price Waterhouse Cooper survey of 560 people reported that consumers now watch about 12.4 hours of digital video on Internet devices like mobile phones and computers, with 42.6 percent getting their movie content from Netflix and 30.7 percent getting it from Hulu. This balanced out, according to the survey, with 8.9 hours spent with traditional broadcast, cable and satellite sources.
For more:
- TechCrunch has this story
- ReelSEO has this story
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