For three years now, we’ve been publishing a monthly recap of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption on TV screens around the country. It’s called Das Gauge™, and it’s underpinned by Nielsen’s leading audience measurement services across streaming and linear TV.
The Gauge " ist jeden Monat eine schnelle Lektüre und bietet eine Fülle von interessanten Einblicken in den Zustand des Fernsehens: die Ebbe und Flut der TV-Programme, sowohl für abonnement- als auch für werbefinanzierte Programme, die Auswirkungen von Tentpole-Events und Blockbuster-Veröffentlichungen, eine laufende Auflistung der wichtigsten Streaming-Plattformen auf dem Markt und viele weitere Details, die Marken und Medienunternehmen dabei helfen, zu verstehen, was das Publikum heute sieht.
If you’re like us, you live for the details. There’s nothing like diving into the data and spotting a new opportunity before anyone else. But it can also be incredibly helpful to take a step back from time to time and look at the bigger picture. And when we look at the data from the past few months, one trend stands out: Television is now a converged experience.
Das Zeitalter der Medienkonvergenz
Wo verläuft heutzutage die Grenze zwischen Streaming und linearem Fernsehen?
Some of the most successful streaming programs in recent memory have been shows licensed from broadcast and cable TV, like Freunde, Seinfeld or Suits.
It’s not a new phenomenon. Netflix drew fans and accolades with AMC’s Breaking Bad und The Walking Dead long before originals like House of Cards und Orange is the New Black. Streaming platforms have long been an opportunity for new generations of fans to rediscover big broadcast shows. But the convergence we see today between streaming platforms and linear TV goes beyond the syndication of linear TV’s enormous back catalog.
Die Konvergenz, die wir heute zwischen Streaming-Plattformen und linearem Fernsehen erleben, geht über die Syndizierung des enormen Katalogs des linearen Fernsehens hinaus.
Take Young Sheldon. The beloved Big Bang Theory prequel had its series finale this Spring after seven seasons. We reported in our May 2024 report of The Gauge that the show earned 6 billion viewing minutes for the month across broadcast (CBS), cable (TBS and Nick-At-Nite) and streaming (Paramount+, Netflix and Max). Its series finale on CBS drew 11.74 million viewers (live + 7).
What makes Young Sheldon stand out from other linear TV crossovers is its simultaneous multi-platform success. Many series wind down on linear TV before breaking through on streaming platforms, but the 6 billion minutes Young Sheldon garnered in May 2024 were split almost exactly in half between traditional linear channels and streaming. Its success on linear TV fed its success on streaming platforms, and vice versa.
Eine Entwicklung, die Jahre dauert
Way back in 1999, NBC Research Chief Horst Stipp was witnessing the convergence of TVs and PCs and contemplating what type of multimedia future was in the offing. He wasn’t sure at the time whether the new devices would be “television sets with computer functions (TVPCs) or computers with TV reception facilities (PCTVs),” but he knew that bringing about real change would require the convergence of technologies, companies and consumer behavior.
Today, the impact of new technologies on the TV landscape is very clear. Broadband, streaming and smart TVs have upended how people watch television content. Media companies are forging new alliances to optimize licensing deals and meet viewers where they are. The Media Distributor Gauge we launched in April shows how much convergence has already occurred at the top. All that remained was a convergence of consumer behavior, and that’s what we’re seeing now with programs like Young Sheldon.
Ein Gegenmittel gegen die Fragmentierung der Medien
It’s not the only example. The April 7th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game drew 18.9 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, and the Women’s Final Four took four of the top six spots in April’s cable TV rankings and contributed to a 28% jump in cable sports viewing that month. The tournament’s availability on dozens of online platforms didn’t hurt the ABC broadcast, it helped.
And in late June / early July, the Euro 2024 and Copa América broke viewership records thanks to simultaneous broadcasts on Fox, Univision, the Fox Sports app and TelevisaUnivision’s streaming platform Vix.
The media industry has long lamented the fragmentation of the TV universe because it saw audiences as a zero-sum game. The fear was that if there was another way to watch a show, it would mean that the audience would split, and therefore become less attractive (smaller and harder to reach) to potential advertisers. But fans who watch Young Sheldon on CBS and on Paramount+ don’t share the same profile. By embracing fragmentation and building convergent TV offerings, media companies can raise the visibility of their programs across a wider and more diverse audience. And that’s music to a marketer’s ears.
Indem sie die Fragmentierung annehmen und konvergente TV-Angebote entwickeln, können Medienunternehmen die Sichtbarkeit ihrer Programme bei einem größeren und vielfältigeren Publikum erhöhen.
Messung der Medienkonvergenz
“Television is no longer confined to tidy channels and specific screens,” Nielsen’s Head of Global Marketing Alison Gensheimer noted in a recent op-ed. “Is YouTube TV? What about FAST channels, or shows you watch on a phone? Definitions change depending on who you talk to, and I’m starting to wonder if it even matters. For advertisers, the important question—now and forever—is where the audience is. Increasingly, it’s multiple places at once.”
What does that mean for measurement? Now more than ever, you need to know how your shows are performing on each and every platform, and you need to be able to compare measurements across all channels and platforms. The only way to design a synergistic programming strategy and turn convergence into a competitive advantage is to have all the cards in hand.
Weitere Informationen zum konvergenten Fernsehen finden Sie in der neuesten Gauge-Veröffentlichung.
