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While the amount of broadcast TV and cable fare that a typical American consumes remains fairly high—about four hours per day for “live” TV—there is no denying that changes are happening. According to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report, in the first quarter of 2012 an average adult in its national panel devoted five hours and 10 minutes per day to live TV, but by 2017, this had dropped almost an hour, to four hours and 21 minutes per day. Over the same interval, the amount of DVR time-shifted viewing rose from 26 minutes to 34 minutes per day. The use of multimedia devices such as Roku and Apple TV rose from five minutes per adult daily in 2014 to 19 minutes in 2017.
Of even greater significance has been the rise of digital video consumption. According to Nielsen’s Comparable Metrics Report for the fourth quarter of 2016, 89% of the adults in U.S. TV homes watched one or more “linear TV” shows in a week, but 51% also viewed a video on a smartphone, 31% saw videos on their PCs and 18% did so using tablets.
As has always been the case, traditional TV viewing is very heavily concentrated among middle aged, and especially, older adults, while the various alternative sources of TV/video content are primarily favored by younger adults. Nielsen reports, for example, in the first quarter of 2017, an average 18-24-year-old consumed two hours and 56 minutes of videos per week on PCs, while the corresponding figure for persons 65+ was a mere 44 minutes. The age contrast in smartphone video usage was even greater, with 18-24s averaging a per-capita weekly dosage of one hour and 23 minutes, compared to only six minutes for those aged 65+.
Digital media advocates and ad sellers harp on the slow but steady decline in live TV viewing, combined with the impressive gains in PC, smartphone and tablet usage—especially among young adults; but when the stats are converted into TV-style average minute audience metrics, traditional TV still maintains a huge viewing margin over digital. Using first quarter 2017 Nielsen findings for the total adult TV home population to make this point, we found that, while digital venues attain impressive weekly reach levels, their audience levels are dwarfed by TV, even among 18-34s. For example, among all adults, TV’s average minute viewer tally across all dayparts was 51.5 million. In comparison, video viewing on PCs accounted for only 3.1 million, smartphone videos came in at only 1.1 million, and tablets trailed far behind at 439,000. While TV’s edge among Millennials was considerably less, it still topped all three digital platforms by huge margins.
More on this topic, including detailed tables, will be available in TV Dimensions 2018, available next week in print and electronic format https://www.mediadynamicsinc.com.
Much is made about the impeding demise of linear TV due to inroads by new and alternative viewing options, but there’s evidence out there that suggests that the various platforms may be more interconnected than one might think.
NPD Group’s Entertainment Trends in America report found that people consumed an hour more of video content (across all platforms) in August of 2017 compared to a year earlier. Although an upswing in SVOD usage is a major contributor to this increase, the fact that overall usage increased suggests that people aren’t viewing SVOD instead of linear TV, but rather in addition to linear TV. Add to this the fact that, as we report in TV Dimensions 2018, although TV homes with SVOD services have increased by over 200% since 2010, the number of homes with cable subscriptions has only declined about 3.6%, and the number of homes with DVRs has actually increased by 50%. Again, this suggests that the use of SVOD services does not pre-empt the ongoing viewing of broadcast and cable programming.
Furthermore, it seems that as people move freely across platforms, there is a sort of cross-pollination that works to the benefit of both linear and non-linear TV. According to the 2017 Video Content Discovery Study, conducted by the iab and maru/matchbox, there is a striking amount of fluidity in how people discover new video content across platforms. For example, although most linear TV viewers still find out about TV shows through TV commercials (56%), a sizable number hears about them through online browsing (28%), social media posts/comments (24%), social media ads (23%) and, perhaps most interestingly, through an SVOD menu (18%) and recommendations on YouTube (14%). When it comes to SVOD subscribers, 39% hear about new SVOD shows though linear TV commercials, and 36% through online browsing, both edging out those who find out about new SVOD shows through the SVOD menu itself (34%). Even original digital video is tied to other platforms; although online browsing was the top means of hearing about original digital video (51%), traditional TV commercials followed closely, with 42% of respondents claiming they found out about original digital programming in this way.
As we discussed in the first article in this issue of Media Matters, alternative platforms may have eroded linear TV viewership to some extent, but it still retains the lion’s share of daily time spent. And as the two reports discussed here may suggest, the relationship between linear and non-linear TV isn’t as adversarial as some might think. There may be room for everyone when it comes to satisfying the consumer’s appetite for new content and, as the consumer moves from platform to platform, there may be cross-promotional opportunities that benefit TV as a whole.