Viewers are increasingly watching TV programmes on other screens with ‘delinearised’ and online TV consumption growing, according to a new global report from EurodataTV.
For Sahar Baghery, Head of Global Research and Content Strategy at Eurodata TV Worldwide : “The theme of this new TV season will be diversification: diversification of distribution, of technology, of content and creative centres. We now order our TV “à la carte” and from a vast menu!”
Frédéric Vaulpré, Vice-President of Eurodata TV Worldwide, adds: “At the same time as we increasingly watch TV on other screens and pre-recorded, audience measurement is evolving in many countries to take this new usage into account.”
Delinearised and online TV consumption grows
Viewers are increasingly watching TV programmes on other screens. In Canada, 60% of 18 to 34 year olds watched a full TV programme online last month. In France, 6% of web users aged 15 and over are watching TV programmes online every day. Increased ownership of devices is driving these practices – for example, almost 2 out 3 French people have a smartphone and more than two thirds of Dutch people own a tablet.
The public also view in a delinearised fashion, whether watching a pre-recording or on replay. In 2015 in 26 countries that measure time-shifted and replay audiences, delinearised viewing added an extra 7% of audience, in other words 15 minutes per day on average. Globally, television viewing time in 2015 amounted to 3 hours and 14 minutes, around 3 minutes less than in 2014. Big live events continues to gather a large audience in front of TV sets : 151 million viewers watched CCTV’s New Year’s Gala on Chinese New Year’s Eve, the largest worldwide audience again in 2015 . In the United-States, the Oscars are the number 1 programme for 2015, in Venezuela, it was Miss Universe, in Iceland, the New Year’s Eve programme.
New practices are gradually being taken into account in audience measurement – across the 89 countries researched, 31 measure recording, 21 replay, 14 TV viewing on personal computers and 6 on tablets and smartphones. In 2016 , 7 countries are planning to incorporate the 4 screen TV audience figures into the official measurements, including France.
Content and OTT platforms are developing
Strong content and multi-screen use have led in particular to the geographical expansion of Netflix, which is present in 190 countries in 2016. This development is founded on partnerships with local players and locally-rooted programme production: since 2015, 1 Netflix original fiction series out of 5 has been produced outside of the United States, whether it was big companies such as the creators of Gomorrah in Italy with Suburra, or little known ones such as Boutique Filmes with their original Brazilian production 3%.
Besides the two giants that are Netflix and Amazon, platforms devoted to a particular genre are appearing and also key players in entertainment are taking positions on OTT: Snapchat, Instagram, Apple Music. This is all occurring against the backdrop of advances in technology including immersive videos and virtual reality.
Successes and future hits in Fiction and Entertainment
Regarding fiction series in the major countries, the new releases from 2015 and 2016 are already well ahead at the top of the rankings: the revived X-Files has already been broadcast in several countries just days after it premiered in the US. In Turkey, the series Kiralik Ask launched in June and climbed to 3rd place for all genres combined in 2015. There is also innovative new fiction coming from other parts of the world. In Saudi Arabia, the series Selfie, an MBC Group channel production broadcast in the Middle East was ranked 1st in the 2015 Top Ten. And new series in planning also allow us to predict some hit successes to come: in the US the series Roots will launch simultaneously on A+E’s three channels (History, A&E and Lifetime) in May.
Emergence of new trends observed in Entertainment. Unconventional contest formats have been seen: in 2015, King of Mask Singer worked well and the format travelled to China on Jiangsu Sat. Other unusual projects are due to arrive on screen such as The Legend (Global Agency). Lastly, we have noted new kinds of dating shows: In Kiss Bang Love, a group of singles in search of their soul mate participate in a TV experience with a radical twist. Already sold to several territories and currently in production in Denmark and Australia, the programme has excelled in Germany on ProSieben. Additionally, The Single Chef (Televisa) is coming to Mexico.
The innovation of video platforms
Video platforms offer a wide variety of content. On YouTube, channels offer wacky challenges with Dumbass Productions in Sweden, Mahoto in Japan, and Thatcherjoe in the UK; strange objects: Vat19 (USA), Hugo Posay (France), Hikakintv (Japan) and rankings across all genres: Top Ranking (Spain), Topito (France), JustSmile (Sweden).
Video programming is becoming more professional and drawing inspiration from some televisual narrative: embedding text and images, video montage, animation and effects.
Finally, YouTube tests a business model. Accordingly, YouTube Red launched in October 2015 – a paid-for content platform that is ad-free and currently only available in the US – which provides exclusive original content.