Nielsen’s Latest Total Audience Report Reveals a Surprising and Challenging Future

If one could ascribe a word to describe the findings from the latest Nielsen Total Audience Report, it would be “surprising.”  The report not only reaffirmed some of the basic trends in consumer media usage, it also revealed some new usage behaviors from content choice to demographic stratifications to hardware and software adoption.

Peter Katsingris (pictured at top), Senior Vice President, Nielsen Audience Insights, described the current media environment as one that “changes quickly. There is always something new that pops out, especially when we include other Nielsen data sets that have not been included in this report before.”  One example of this was the addition of moviegoer data that tended to skew younger.
Media companies cannot afford to be complacent in this ecosystem. Consumers’ appetites for media are continuously evolving, according to Katsingris, who reported that consumers spend over 11.5 hours a day on media. “That’s almost half a day,” he said. “Clearly, most of their awake time is connected one way or another.”

Video discovery was an “ah-ha” moment, based on new data. “We definitely found this data surprising with respect to the consumer journey,” Katsingris noted. The report revealed the decision-making process viewers undertake when choosing content. “We asked questions, like ‘Do you know what you are going to watch before you actually watch’ and ‘What action did you take to decide what to watch?’” he said, adding that almost two-thirds of adults know exactly what they want to watch most of the time, while one-third have a general idea and about a quarter weren’t sure.  Ultimately, he said that 58% indicated they would view their favorite traditional channels if they couldn’t make a decision.

The amount of time we spend searching was also interesting to Katsingris. Viewers spend time scanning options, “and we realized that eight minutes of time went by before they made a decision. That is eight minutes of browsing through menus to see if something catches your interest.” He suggested that content owners need to [stand out in] these early stages of consideration and cut through this clutter “to make sure that what they are offering stands out from everything else.” One way to do this is to make sure that their content is available across all services, platforms and devices.
For those who didn’t really know what they wanted to watch, their content search revealed that “what ranked the highest was search that could be done via the remote to quickly look through your favorite channels.  People tend to rely on what is familiar to them to get them through this time of choice.” The search activities that stood out “were those tuned to favorite channels, scanning through the traditional TV channels, going through the program guide, then browser menus on subscription services,” he revealed. These choice orders varied somewhat by age, with younger viewers searching subscription services more than overall adults.

Interestingly, the report indicated that “recommendations from service providers were less likely to influence viewers on what to watch.” Further, 21% opted out of viewing altogether when they couldn’t find anything to watch.

Voice Assistants and Smart Speakers
Technology is not only driving video search partners; it’s also impacting how users engage with voice assistant technology. Voice assistants are used by 36% of all adults. “It’s found everywhere from your smart speakers to your smartphones,” Katsingris noted. “Even my cable remote has voice assistance as well to help me find content. It’s an enabler to allow consumers to get answers quickly and access content, and also, with IoT, control things like lights in the home and your car, hands-free.”
Since smart speakers launched a few years ago, their adoption and the amplification of audio content has continued to rise. Smart speakers are now found in 28% of all households, and because of their hands-free convenience, Katsingris believes that they are replacing other functions that devices had. “As consumers acquire these devices, their capabilities will continue to grow, and ownership will expand exponentially with their use,” he said. Most usage is music and weather, “but, according to our MediaTech Trender Survey data, we see that nearly all smart speaker owners, about 95%, report listening to music on their devices,” he continued. “It’s potentially taking away users who listen to music on their smartphones, TV sets or on tablets.” The top listening formats for smart speakers were music, podcasts, sports updates and shopping online. And, he noted, some people just like to chat with these devices. “Seventy-seven percent report that they just like to talk to them for fun.”

The Future
For Katsingris, the future for media companies is at once challenging and opportunistic. “Consumers continue to engage with media across all of the platforms,” he explained. “It’s at their leisure. It’s on demand for a good part of the day with some demographics more than others. So, it’s really important to know who is using which platform and how much more than others to reach your desired demographic. I just hope younger generations know the old way of doing things as well and aren’t depending on things being done for them.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com