Streaming Services and the Olympics Highlight Viewing Trends posted: 24/02/2018
by Andy Marken
Even though you're doing your part, TV viewing is slipping. Forrester's Jim Nail recently reported that the ratings of top shows have declined an average of 25 percent over the past five years. Even NBC reported that TV viewing of this year's Winter Olympic Games was down six percent, compared to the viewing audience numbers from 2014. We have to look behind the gross numbers to explain the apparent downturn.
Rationalizing the decreases in different ways, Nail and NBC used their unique interpretation of Chris Anderson's Long Tail distribution discussion he popularized back in 2004 in Wired magazine.
Selection Rules - All of the video content services, including YouTube, place a premium on material that attracts large volumes of users. Netflix expands its customer base by having exclusive content people just have to watch and YouTube rewards channels with greater ad income by viewership. But now, there's a world of content available for mainstream and niche content producers and viewers.
Simply stated, the industry suffers from an embarrassment of overabundance:
The old cable formula still offers something like 1,000 channels, even though folks only visit seven or eight.
OTT (over the top) streaming content has 100s, 1000s of free/paid channels.
300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, 1M videos are uploaded to Snapchat every day.
There are 7.6B plus people on the planet, roughly half of them (3.6B) have an Internet connection, about 80 percent of the world's households have a TV and there are 2.5B smartphone users worldwide.
According to Nielsen, contrary to TV viewing dying, the audience is up about five percent, compared to four years ago.
Rather than watching just one or two channels per day, the number of channels viewed has almost doubled and the method used for viewing shifts throughout the day.
Online Tracking - With streaming content, people can grab a quick video fix between/during classes or boring meetings or catch-up on shows they missed on the ride home on the device in their hands and can still have a chance to watch news, sports or the new releases when they get home.
The People are watching fewer channels, but they're choosing their channels from a much larger pool.
That hustle to become a top dog in the viewer selection race has shaken the M&E (media & entertainment) industry to its very core.
It's a poorly kept secret that FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) and BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) are in town (that's Hollywood for the non-glams) and are determined to take the best talent from the networks/studios to build their title inventories quickly.
They haven't been shy about their commitment to dominate tomorrow's viewing with big, multi-year contracts.
Folks like Ryan Murphy, Reese Weatherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Shonda Rhimes, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Jill Soloway, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Jennifer Salke, Steven Spielberg, Elizabeth Olsen and other name players have signed on with FAANG and BAT firms.
Talent agents are being prodded to get their clients in front of the right people!
To constantly feed their growing global subscriber base, Netflix will spend $8 billion this year on programming.
Amazon will invest $4.5 billion, Hulu $2.5 billion and $1 billion for Apple.
Disney responded by pulling its programs from Netflix and will roll out its own paid streaming service later this year.
Of course, Igor is keeping all of his options open:
Offering $52B to acquire most of 21st Century Fox
Planning an ESPN streaming channel
Investing about $15B in programming this year
VOD Opportunities - TV and content development/production organizations view the growing streaming audience as a way to attract more viewers to their unique content whether on a subscription or ad-supported basis.
Peter Rice, Fox president, isn't overly impressed with the Netflix programming budget, noting that it's a reasonable sum for someone trying to compete.
Look at the expanse of Hollywood, Rice said. Maybe Netflix is spending 10 percent of the overall content spend of Hollywood. That's not a monopoly.
Still, we know a lot of folks who want to see their titles added to the FAANG/BAT lists.
To offset the loss of hit shows and talent to streaming companies, network and cable companies are focusing on what they do best - live events (news, sports, awards) - and leveraging them across all channels.
The best example of the shift to cover all of their bases is NBC's $12B investment in the TV, mobile, internet streaming rights to the Olympic Games through 2032.
Even with a decrease in the number of people watching the Games and $900M of ads on NBC and its cable nets, the TV viewing will still beat out it's on-air competition over the 18 nights by a huge margin.
They've been streaming coverage of every Olympic event since the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Every two years, they've seen a major growth in their online audience.
And every year, the streamers have been younger.
NBC said 76 percent of the online viewers for Pyeongchang are between the ages of 18 to 49, up from 61 percent for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio when the median age was 52.
This year, NBC changed the Olympics viewing rules by streaming live coverage in prime time when the most viewers are available to watch at home.
When the games end, they don't care how you watched - smart phone; tablet; internet-connected streaming device such as Amazon Fire, Roku; smart TV or their regular network.
That wasn't possible in in previous Olympics because of time zone differences.
While we stuck with the big screen, the kids went cross-platform - iPhone, iPad, TV.
As with Rio, we had a
Most recent headlines
17/02/2025
TVBEurope talks to the team who brought a piece of broadcasting history back to life on BBC Wales last night
By Jenny Priestley
Published: February 14, 2025 ...
17/02/2025
Eligible studios will receive the relief directly from their local authorities, with no need to submit a claim
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: February 17, 20...
17/02/2025
As DEI initiatives come under pressure in the USA, supporters of Rise, which promotes diversity in the media and entertainment sector, discuss the continuing im...
17/02/2025
EIB Global loan will partially fund SES's continued O3b mPOWER medium earth orbit (MEO) fleet expansion enabling additional capacity worldwide. O3b mPOWER s...
15/02/2025
At Nielsen, Business Resource Groups (BRGs) play a critical role in nurturing a ...
15/02/2025
Innovation to empower creativity: Explore the latest in Lightroom
Rob Christensen February 15, 2025
0 Comments
Whether you want to remove distracting ...
15/02/2025
Wisycom, a worldwide leader in RF technology and provider of wireless solutions, announces a new distribution agreement with EQUAPHON. An Argentinian profession...
15/02/2025
DPA Microphones, the leading manufacturer of high-quality microphone solutions, is pleased to welcome Nicholas Nick Mariano and Vincent Vince Divine to the ...
15/02/2025
Tuxera, a leading provider of quality-assured file systems and networking solutions, will showcase how Tuxera Fusion SMB enables unprecedented performance for m...
15/02/2025
Bitmovin's latest Video Developer Report indicates an increasing role of AI, the slow adoption of next-generation codecs, and continuing challenges when it ...
15/02/2025
When Michelin Enterprises set out to promote its prestigious Hotel Guide in the new Sleepless in the Kitchen , campaign, veteran German/Slovenian gaffer Robert...
15/02/2025
Formula E, the world's first all-electric racing series, revolutionizing motorsport with cutting-edge technology and a commitment to sustainability has sele...
15/02/2025
Agile Content, a global leader in TV and video technology solutions, announces its rebranding to AgileTV.
The transition to AgileTV stems from a commitment to ...
15/02/2025
Hiltron Communications will promote the latest additions to its range of satellite communication products, systems and supporting services at GovSatCom 2025. Th...
15/02/2025
Following the success of the original Airglow Booklight, DoPchoice debuts a new addition to their inflatable line the Float. This lightweight, inflatable, round...
15/02/2025
LAS VEGAS Marshall Electronics has announced that it will debut its newest camera controller, the RCP Plus, at the 2025 NAB Show at Booth N2649 between April 5 ...
15/02/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has named Blake Sebo as the next general manager of KTUU and KYES, Gray's NBC and CBS affiliates in Anchorage, Alaska....
15/02/2025
KOKKEDAL, Denmark DPA Microphones will feature its new CORE+ technology for distortion-free microphone sound at the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, in Las Vegas....
15/02/2025
SWANSEA, U.K. QuickLink will launch StudioPro-NDI and StudioPro-3, two new models of its QuickLine StudioPro video production platform, at the 2025 NAB Show, Ap...
15/02/2025
Live From 2025 NBA All-Star Game Weekend: After 25 Years, Turner Sports All-In F...
15/02/2025
NASCAR Driver Cam on Max Embraces Cloud-Based Workflow for 2025 Season Chris Brown of WBD Sports says Mobii will play key part in delivering signals from the tr...
14/02/2025
Last month, we officially launched the Spotify Partner Program, a powerful new m...
14/02/2025
From an island off the coast of Lutruwita to the global stage in France SBS & ...
14/02/2025
The future of electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) land systems is evolving so that ...
14/02/2025
Here are 5 reasons why you should attend ISE 2025
Discover more about Calrec: Learn more about Calrec's legacy of innovation in broadcast audio solutions ...
14/02/2025
World Radio Day: On the same wavelength
By Graham Murray, International Sales Manager at Calrec
To mark World Radio Day, Calrec's International Sales Ma...
14/02/2025
DALLAS and TYSONS, Va. Tegna has concluded a broadcast rights agreement that makes Tegna's KFAA in Dallas the exclusive local television partner of the Dall...
14/02/2025
Amazon's Prime Video has released a new app for Apple TV that the streamer said delivers an improved streaming experiences with faster scrolling, improved s...
14/02/2025
CLEVELAND Telos Alliance announced a software update for its Axia Quasar XR and SR line of audio-over-IP (AoIP) mixing consoles and will show the offering at th...
14/02/2025
Puget Systems Returns to HPA Tech Retreat 2025 with New Analysis Tools for Puge...
14/02/2025
Glass Animals: Tour of Earth Uses Blackmagic Live Production Workflow
Brie Clayton February 14, 2025
0 Comments
80six deploys Blackmagic URSA Broadcas...
14/02/2025
A dispute between Paramount and Youtube TV that would have pulled CBS stations and Paramount's cable channels from the streaming service has been temporaril...
14/02/2025
Colourist Deidre (Dee) McClelland details how she helped shape the distinct look and feel of whimsical Oscar-nominated stop-motion film, Memoir of a Snail
By C...
14/02/2025
BitFire said it intends to introduce forward-looking services that simplify the launch of live production workflows, and enhance real-time collaboration
By Jen...
14/02/2025
The claim by the liquidators is the latest twist in the ongoing saga of the companys collapse at the end of 2021
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: February 14, ...
14/02/2025
A carriage dispute between YouTube TV and Paramount could come to a head today (Feb. 13), with the virtual pay TV provider threatening to pull all of the progra...
14/02/2025
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. LG Electronics USA has opened a new in-house, state-of-the-art virtual production studio at its 360,000-square-foot North American headqu...
14/02/2025
NEW YORK In a bid to help local broadcasters find new ways of monetizing their content, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and TVB have relea...
14/02/2025
WASHINGTON Three Democratic U.S. Senators have sent a stern letter blasting FCC Chair Brendan Carr for the weaponization of the agency for attacking broadcast...
14/02/2025
Years after launching the streaming service Apple TV+ in November of 2019, Apple has finally released a version of its steaming app for Android devices....
14/02/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. Red Digital Cinema will make its V-RAPTOR [X] and KOMODO-X camera systems available with Nikon's premier Z Mount, providing filmmaker...
14/02/2025
DAYTONA, Fla. The Fox Sports production of this year's Daytona 500 will see the addition of a few new tech elements and the continued unfolding of the broad...
14/02/2025
Watch Bryson Battles Blind Audition on The Voice Get a Four-Chair Turn Michael Bubl said the Boston Conservatory at Berklee musical theater senior might have...
14/02/2025
2025 Daytona 500: FOX Sports Looks To Ride Super Bowl LIX Momentum Into NASCAR S...
14/02/2025
14 Feb 2025
VEON's Kyivstar and the Come Back Alive Foundation Raise USD 2....
14/02/2025
Max Renews THE PITT, Starring Noah Wyle, For A Second Season
Max
Warner Bros. Television Group
The Pitt
New Episodes Of The Medical Drama From John...
14/02/2025
This year, Technicolor proudly celebrates 110 years of shaping the magic of cinema pioneering color, visual effects, and innovation that bring unforgettable l...
14/02/2025
NBA All-Star: More Games, More Teams, More Music, More Sound From the Court Turner Sports' team will deploy familiar tech to capture all the audio By Dan D...
14/02/2025
LIV Golf Continues To Innovate With Drones, Data-Driven Graphics, and All-Access...
Streaming Services and the Olympics Highlight Viewing Trends posted: 24/02/2018 
