Curated content doesn’t signal the death of live TV
Are the days of linear TV really numbered? Sky IQ’s Emma Holden is not so sure – and argues that traditional TV has actually adapted incredibly well to the increasing disruption in the media landscape…
The desire for personalisation and individual content is a theme often discussed within the world of media, particularly within the broadcast arena. You can see the motivation: no one wants to be a sheep. We all cherish the notion of our own uniqueness and individuality.
So, the argument goes, when it comes to our viewing habits – from films to family entertainment, Vines to VoD – we can become the ultimate self-curators, freed from the constriction of schedules and imposed programming, left to explore and acquire an individual stream of content.
The Internet has enabled us access to a once unimaginable volume of video content, and so the logic often applied is that it allows viewers to pick and choose exactly what they want. In this climate, how likely are we to stick with the schedule?
In 2012, more than 500 programmes generated a live audience of at least eight million people.”
Well, we definitely live in a world of splendid content choice available for viewing across multiple platforms and on an array of devices, but, to paraphrase Mark Twain, “reports of the death of scheduled TV are greatly exaggerated.”
At Advertising Week 2014, the co-founder and CTO of in-video advertising company Innovid, stood up and boldly claimed that “within ten years, linear TV will dissolve and users will drive self-scheduling.”
We don’t see this happening any time soon. Why not? Well, the truth is that, despite the predictions that the days of TV domination were numbered once an online and on-demand world evolved, traditional TV has actually adapted incredibly well to the increasing disruption within the media landscape.
In stark contrast to some expectations, it has faced the threat, gained strength and actually improved in all areas. As a consequence, viewing figures have remained strong, despite people spending increasing amounts of time on other media.
We now watch 12 more minutes of linear TV via our television than we did ten years ago, according to Thinkbox – who also stood up at Advertising Week, to announce that over the next decade, TV viewing will increase to an average of five hours a day as device use continues to proliferate.
And BARB figures show that 85% of TV viewing is still live. In 2012, more than 500 programmes generated a live audience of at least eight million people, and only 1.5% of TV viewing was time-shifted to the 8 – 28 day post-live transmission period.
Behaviour patterns appear to be stabilising, with people essentially still preferring to watch programmes as soon as possible after live transmission – just with the added flexibility that catch-up TV offers.
Scheduling is still an important part of our daily lives and, I think, with good reason. While we might enjoy that additional flexibility, I think there’s also a degree of pleasure to be derived from having some element of routine – something that we can plan around.
Live TV remains a key event for the millions of viewers who like to catch up with the news, tune in to soap operas such as Coronation Street or dramas such as Game of Thrones. Who hasn’t had to re-arrange a social event to avoid missing out on a key sporting fixture or perhaps the latest instalment of X Factor?
That’s not to play down the growing relevance of time-shifted TV. At Sky, for instance, we have 4.4 million connected customers and almost 3.5 million users of our Sky Go proposition, where subscribers can watch Sky programming on the move – on iPhones, iPads or laptops.
Last year we had 750 million viewing requests on Sky Go. That might sound high enough in isolation, but it’s even more important when you consider that it’s almost double the number we received in the previous year – up from 400 million in 2012.
There is growing evidence that VoD can add to linear viewing figures, rather than eating away at them.”
In total, our customers ‘requested’ 1.2 billion shows and films through Sky connected services in 2013, or, if my maths serves me correctly, around 38 pieces of content every second. Use of the Sky Go service is particularly high amongst younger audiences.
It isn’t just documentaries or other non-time critical content that gets viewed, retrospectively, either. Stats from Sky Media, one of our sister companies, show that Sherlock – which had viewers returning for that cliffhanger (and featured plenty of twists and turns throughout its three episode run) – was the highest recorded programme during 2013.
3.5 million viewers viewed Sherlock on-demand or via catch-up from Sky during the seven day period after the episode had aired, with around 475,000 returning between eight and 28 days later. In total, 11% of those who watched Sherlock did so more than a week after the episode first aired (source: BARB).
Elsewhere, there is growing evidence that VoD can add to linear viewing figures, rather than eating away at them. NBC’s Sleepy Hollow, which many viewers opted to sample via VoD, experienced a 40% growth in real-time viewing thanks to a new audience dropping in having trialled it on demand (source: Kantar/BSkyB SkyView).
That’s not just a great example of how content discovery can generate phenomenal returns for a show, but also of the increasingly symbiotic relationship between linear and VoD programming.
The old and the new can co-exist together. People weave between platforms according to their specific needs at different times of the day and so for any brand operating in this sphere it’s about playing to their respective strengths.
Similarly, for all the scare-mongering that social media would erode TV it has ended up having twin positive effects. Not only has it become a great amplifier for TV, it has also become a great advocate for live TV as avoiding spoilers becomes nigh on impossible unless you avoid your smartphone entirely.
Ultimately, we can only curate content if we know what content is available. With changing times, broadcasters have adapted and extended access to increasing volumes of content across new platforms, which in turn has increased viewing to TV overall.
Whichever way you cut it, it’s clear that the conversation needs to move on. It’s not about linear vs. VoD anymore; in fact, there was never a fight in the first place. VoD is an addition, not a substitution, to our viewing experience.
We shouldn’t be dwelling on the debate that’s dominated the past decade or so. Instead, we should be celebrating the fact that there is clearly room for both in our lives.
Better still, we should be thinking about how we use those two increasingly strong channels to continue to improve the experience for consumers. After all, with more tools at our disposal, the opportunity to create a more connected, more cohesive customer experience has never been greater.