The race is on for seamless, de-duplicated cross platform
measurement. Nielsen recently announced results from their Total Audience
solution and shared some initial data findings with the press this past week.
Nielsen spokesman Ben Billingsley opened the meeting and
stated that “Total audience is the framework for measuring audiences across
platforms so that the data can be presented in comparable fashion from TV to
digital on a like for like basis.” Nielsen is currently working with clients
who are reviewing their data from Total Audience. Nielsen’s presentation was based on blinded cuts
of the data and the results were presented by Glenn Enoch, SVP
Audience Insights.
Enoch explained that his presentation would
give us “a sense for what kind of consumer insights can be gleaned from
Total Audience and to demonstrate its full capabilities. Today, we are able to
look at individual pieces of content and can see how consumers got to them whether
Live, Time Shifted, via VOD, (whether the same ad load or different or no ad load),
on the pc or smartphone or tablet. Essentially, what is the mix of vectors the
viewers use to get to the content.”
In a departure from the industry standards for measuring
viewership plus 3 or 7 days, viewership to content in Total Audience will be
counted into perpetuity enabling the ability to see how viewership changes over
time, even years. The data presented at the breakfast reflected Adults 18-49 in
a mixture of both broadcast and cable individual programs. The data was
collected into buckets of viewership source and was reported collectively and
by genre.
Here are some of the takeaways:
1.
All programs experience lift above the Live plus
7 days delivery, although the degree of lift varies by genre – some by as much
as +50%.
2.
Programs that have more lift tend to get that
lift later – after day 35.
3.
Different platforms have different levels of
lift. For example, DVR contribution tends to be more front-loaded. It delivers less
and less lift as time goes on, based on the average of all networks included in
the analysis.
4.
Programs with viewership after 35 days are
tending to get lift from VOD - on any device that is a source of VOD.
5.
The amount of lift and the type of platform used
for viewing varies by program genre over time.
-
Reality competition shows have the least amount
of lift over time because of the timeliness of the content. “Most to all
viewing is done upfront, within first week,” according to Enoch. “All viewing is
done in the first month and it affects the vector that people do to get to the
show,” he added. Most viewing is either Live or DVR while only 7% of viewing to
reality competition is on VOD.
-
Serial dramas have the second lowest amount of
lift, followed by episodic dramas such as crime shows that are more standalone
in terms of story line and can be viewed out of order. 76% of all viewing of
serial dramas takes place in the first week indicating that viewers want to see
one episode before the next one airs while with episodic dramas, 39% of all
consumption is after day 7.
-
Sitcoms tend to experience similar lift to
episodics but the viewing vectors have a more equal distribution of DVR and
VOD.
-
Adult animated comedies experience the greatest
amount of lift over time in this analysis and more than half of the viewing is
using library content on VOD.
6.
The method of viewing changes as distance from
original air grows, shifting from Live and DVR to more VOD and Digital.
7.
Viewers will watch longer when they are viewing
on demand. For two hour-long programs, viewing
time was up from 15-20 mins on average for live viewing to over 30 mins for
on-demand viewing. (Total content duration was about 45 minutes because ads are
not measured). The presumption as to why this is that “Live viewing is more fluid,”
according to Enoch, “while with VOD, one chooses to view that program.”
8.
On demand audiences tend to be younger.
9.
Online viewing length is longer than Live and
are younger than Live.
10.
A larger percentage of TV content viewing is
consumed on larger screens, not on smaller screens. Tablets, for example, “are
designed for shorter term consumption,” according to Enoch.
“This data enables our clients and the industry to
understand how audiences build across time,” said Kelly Abcarian, SVP of
Product Leadership at Nielsen. “So the networks and the broadcasters and the
content owners can have more firepower to talk about how their audience looks
across time so they can better position and plan and sell that out to advertisers."
Next steps, Nielsen will be releasing the ability for
clients to look at source of consumption on connected devices such as Amazon, Roku,
Chromecast, Xbox etc. There is an increasing
use of connected devices that are displacing traditional TV happening in homes
with SVOD content. Stay tuned.
This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com
This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com
