New Media, Social Media, Digital Media Community - Jobs, Share, Learn, Connect

The 5 Myths of TV Viewership: What You Don't Know Might Surprise You

TV remains the dominant medium for content consumption across the 3 screens, even with the growing presence of video content on web and mobile platforms. Yet 5 great myths -- urban media legends if you will -- about trends in television consumption have managed to become commonly held beliefs, even among senior Marketing professionals.

And like the proverbial alligator in the New York City sewers, they just don't want to go away. As the new year begins, it's time to disentangle the myths and their realities:

MYTH #1: Young People are Watching Less and Less TV

REALITY: Youngsters Have Always Watched Less TV

A positive correlation has always existed between age and TV viewership -- older people watch more, younger people less. This is simply a function of time available, as older people have more of it. A recent Nielsen Wire post (Disclosure: I work for The Nielsen Company) showed that adults aged 65+ watch 38% more TV hours per month than those ages 25–34. And, viewers aged 12-24 watch even less.

It's true that children and teens watch less TV each month than adults do -- but contrary to popular belief, they are not replacing TV with the internet for video consumption, but have always watched less TV than older people. Instead, younger consumers are supplementing TV with new web and mobile mediums.

MYTH #2: Ratings are Down Due to People Watching Less TV

REALITY: Ratings are Down Due to Network Fragmentation

TV viewership in the U.S. is actually up over the past decade. The number of TV channels in the U.S. has more than tripled since 1990, and the availability of more channels has spread audiences more thinly. As a result, the average channel audience and program becomes smaller, driving lower ratings.

Accenture research on television viewership shows that over the past year, there has been a 5% increase in viewers watching six or more television channels and a 6% increase in viewers watching eight or more television programs per week. For marketers, fragmentation means that TV program engagement metrics to measure the engagement of viewers with TV programs become even more important.

MYTH #3: Small Channels Have Highly Loyal Audiences

REALITY: Small Channels Are Small and Disloyal

Small channels face the same "Double Jeopardy" laws of small brands. Fewer people watch small channels and those who watch don't watch for very long. Even when a small channel has an above average amount of viewers, viewers still only spend a small proportion of their total viewing time on small channels.So, the commonly held belief that you can reach a small, but highly loyal group of viewers on a small channel is false--small channels, just like small brands, are small because of fewer viewers and the viewers they do have aren't that loyal.

MYTH #4: Audience Demos Differ by Channel

REALITY: Demos Are Similar Across Large Channels

Audience demographics vary far less than expected among large network television channels.

Most network content is so broad based in appeal that, apart from obvious exceptions (Kids channels, music channels, etc.) the larger channels and networks do not have significantly different audiences.

MYTH #5: Programs Have Highly Loyal Audiences

REALITY: Programs Have Relatively Low Loyalty

Research shows that repeat rates for TV programs are generally low -- around 38%. Repeat rates are lowest for comedies and low rated shows (see Double Jeopardy above). For perspective, most CPG companies consider a 50% repeat rate the bare minimum hurdle for a successful new product.While admittedly not a perfect comparison, the reality is that the same exact viewers are generally not watching a program week in and week out. Viewers tune out because of inconvenience, availability, lack of interest, family preferences, and other reasons.

TV Viewing -- Myths No More

Research shows TV will continue to reign as the preeminent advertising platform for the foreseeable future. TV viewing habits have proven to be remarkably impervious to social and technological changes and the introduction of new media. In fact, the research that's been done on the topic suggests that there has been no significant decline over the past 15 years in the effectiveness of TV advertising generating sales lift (see Joel Rubinson blog).

Where Should CMO's Focus ?

CMO's should focus on creating media strategies based on the fundamental truths about longstanding TV viewing behaviors. Avoid the popular urban media myths that are so rampant -- e.g. TV is dying.

Focus instead on how your brand can use TV advertising in a more integrated way with new digital, social and earned media. This will be the real space for innovation in the future. After all, those fictional New York City alligators have yet to migrate out of the sewers and into TV land.

Get free updates of Randall Beard’s Blog by e-mail

Get free updates of Randall Beard’s Blog by RSS reader

Randall Beard is a leading and award winning Chief Marketing Officer and Product Management executive with 25+ years of global experience across consumer packaged goods, financial services and high-touch service brands, including Procter & Gamble, American Express, and UBS Wealth Management. He is currently Global EVP & General Manager at Nielsen IAG, responsible for Consumer Packaged Goods. For more about his thinking, visit Randall Beard's Blog.

Tags: advertising, demographics, loyalty, marketing, media, myths, networks, nielsen, program, tv

Comment

You need to be a member of New Media, Social Media, Digital Media Community and Jobs to add comments!

Join New Media, Social Media, Digital Media Community and Jobs

Comment by Randall Beard on January 9, 2010 at 8:21am: Marilynn -- Thanks for reading the blog and your comment. For TV going forward, I see 4 focus areas for Marketers: 1) New ad forms -- e.g. interactive TV ads (iTV) which are already here and being used by Unilever and others; speed bumps (e.g. ads which appear when you fast forward via DVR), telescoping ads, etc; 2) Cross-Platform marketing integration across TV, Web and Mobile; 3) Improved understanding of "paid" vs. "earned" media and how one drives the other and both combine to build brand equity and sales; and 4) Increased focus on the impact on ad effectiveness of "context" -- e.g. the degree to which ad fit with programming affects ad effectiveness. All of these areas are nascent and offer fertile ground for future ad innovation.
Randall

Comment by Randall Beard on January 9, 2010 at 8:13am: Raji -- TV is by no means dying, but is rather about to go thru a major transformation, including digital connectivity. An interesting book on this topic is Television Disrupted by Shelly Palmer. He shows how TV is moving from network to networked TV and explores the variety of players that populate this interesting landscape.I'm not advocating that Marketers shouldn't be focused on web and digital--rather, that the combination of TV, web and mobile is where their focus should be.
Randall

Comment by Randall Beard on January 9, 2010 at 8:05am: Carri--The data on TV viewership comes from Nielsen. Proportionally, younger people spend much more time on the web and mobile than older people, but their absolute amount of TV consumption has always been lower. It appears that they are adding web and mobile to TV consumption, rather than replacing it.
Randall

Comment by Marilynn on January 8, 2010 at 2:43pm: Randall, what do you think will happen in the next few years with television? What do you see happening as far as integration and crossover into the digital (meaning online and mobile) world given these realities. I am sure there must be some link.

Comment by Raji on January 7, 2010 at 1:33pm: As far as I can see TV is going nowhere. Like the comment before mine, it's easy access. Using it is extremely expensive and they may be the only thing that might need to really change but for a CMO that has the dollars to burn, why not use it. Reaches the masses and the "small channels" are more segmented.

Comment by Carri Bugbee on January 6, 2010 at 8:16pm: Do you have data to support the contention that "children and teens...are not replacing TV with the internet for video consumption." I think we've all seen many stats to the contrary.

@CarriBugbee
Social Profiles: http://www.CarriBugbee.com

Comment by Lucy on January 6, 2010 at 6:11pm: Myth #2 really caught my eye because first, you can't watch television for the most part w/o cable, with cable comes 100's of channels so each one is constantly competing with one another. I love television because it's easy to have access to it and I believe that is the main pull toward it.

Comment by Robin on January 5, 2010 at 10:58am: That was interesting. I didn't know about the myth busting information. On your CMO focus points, I agree as well. They need to integrate each medium to work with each other. I don't think digital media will take over TV but will definitely be used more b/c of the cost to advertise on television so I think companies will work on segmenting and more targeting online.