La convergence de la télévision linéaire et de la télévision en continu transforme la télévision

The advent of Convergent TV¹  impacts both the way that people consume content and in the way that media companies produce and release new programming to meet that demand.

Here are four lessons we can draw from current trends in programming and platform adoption:

¹  Convergent TV is the combination of linear and streaming into a seamless viewing experience.

L'utilisation de la télévision continue de croître grâce à CTV

La portée et le temps passé sont toujours en hausse

For CTV devices, weekly reach was 75% of all U.S. households in mid-2023, five percentage points higher than a year earlier. And the growing importance of streaming in our daily lives is even more evident when we examine time spent. Streaming rolled past cable in November 2022, and as of September 2023, accounted for 37.5% of total TV time, all ages combined.

Source: Nielsen U.S. National TV Panel, weighted households data April 2021- October 2023

Broadcast typically goes up in the fall thanks to football, new series and the return of old favorites. Cable sees a similar bump in the spring with March Madness and the NBA Playoffs. The WNBA tournament was particularly successful in 2023, both on ESPN and on ABC and ESPN+ for the final. In Fall 2023, sports programming again drew viewers in and appears to be shielding broadcasters from the full impact of the recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, at least for the moment.

The ongoing shift of more sports programming to streaming platforms is likely to have major repercussions in 2024, although new local sports rights deals and the rise of FAST TV might moderate that effect, especially in an Olympic and election year.

Le bilan

Broadcast and cable are entertainment pillars, but we’re firmly in the streaming age.

The platform and programming trends highlighted above confirm that the streaming headlines are not overhyped, and the changes we’re observing in our own media behavior are part of a structural shift towards Convergent TV in the industry.

These are the implications for advertisers, agencies, publishers and measurement.

TV viewers aren’t adopting new platforms with same enthusiasm

As of June 2023, Gracenote had cataloged nearly 100 streaming services in the U.S. alone and over 30,000 different channels. In such a highly fragmented landscape, it would be wrong to expect that a show like Suits would appeal to exactly the same types of viewers on Netflix and Peacock TV as it did on USA Network, or that Yellowstone would attract the same audience on CBS as it does on Paramount+.

At a high level, streaming audiences are very different from linear audiences. 

Portée hebdomadaire

While CTV is growing across all segments, there are persistent, sizable differences in weekly reach across age and race/ethnic groups.

Temps passé

While time spent on linear TV grows dramatically with age, it’s more uniform on connected devices. Still, there are substantial variations in time spent by segment, with different age groups leading the way for different race/ethnic groups.

Préférence pour les chaînes

Le streaming représente une proportion beaucoup plus importante du temps de télévision pour les jeunes téléspectateurs que pour les téléspectateurs plus âgés : 60 % (18-34) contre 32 % (50-64) et 18 % (65+) en août 2023.

Il existe des lacunes persistantes dans l'audience hebdomadaire de CTV

L'intérêt reste inégal selon l'âge et les groupes raciaux/ethniques

The weekly reach of CTV devices had climbed five percentage points from early 2022 to mid-2023, with CTV now accounting for a third of total TV usage. Now let’s see how it changed for various demographic groups.

Source : Panel TV national Nielsen T1 2022 - T2 2023

While the weekly reach of CTV devices is improving across virtually every segment of the population, there are wide and persistent gaps: Middle-age adults (35-49) and their young kids (2-11) are leading the way with a weekly reach of 83% and 85%, respectively, while older viewers (65+) are lagging 20 percentage points behind—but still growing at the same rate as the rest of the population” +8% YoY. 

CTV’s reach among Hispanic and Black viewers has been slightly above average since Q4 2022, but it’s remained consistently below average for Asian American viewers, and the gap appears to be widening.

Le bilan

Il faut en faire plus pour répondre à l'incroyable diversité du public de la télévision moderne.

Broad demographics like age and gender have long been used for audience segmentation because it was reasonable for advertisers to expect that certain combinations of programs, networks and dayparts skewed more or less heavily along those dimensions. That’s no longer the case. 

Here’s what it means for advertisers, agencies, publishers and the adtech ecosystem.

ROI drives media decisions, but it isn’t always optimized

L'allocation budgétaire peut avoir un effet considérable sur les résultats

A 2022 Nielsen study of 150,000 observations of marketing ROI and client-supplied media plans found that 50% of planned media investments on channels as diverse as linear TV, digital display, digital video and social media were too low to achieve top ROI.

Source: Nielsen Predictive ROI database, May 2022

Underinvestment is a chronic problem. Advertisers today are spreading their media budgets much thinner than ever before, failing to hit minimum investment thresholds, and leaving a lot of money on the table. Common cross-media metrics and more compatible measurement solutions will go a long way to address that challenge and unlock higher returns for all stakeholders.

Le bilan

Les spécialistes du marketing sont confrontés à un choix difficile lorsqu'ils naviguent dans la dynamique complexe du marché cross-média.

With increased competition, media fragmentation and budgets under pressure, marketers have to make difficult decisions: invest in promising new channels and strategies (for instance, performance-based campaigns on CTV), even if they can’t measure their ROI with absolute confidence; or stay with what worked in the past until standards or reliable common metrics emerge.

Here’s what advertisers, publishers and measurement solutions can do to move the needle.

Implications pour les acteurs des médias

Des recommandations fondées sur des données pour atteindre le public et prouver l'impact à l'ère de la télévision convergente. 

TV remains a central piece of the marketing mix, and is a more complete full-funnel channel now because it’s both scalable and addressable.

Think about TV and digital audiences in the same way: rich, varied, granular and quick-changing.

Maintain constant vigilance. Change happens too fast for old budget allocations to work, and there’s opportunity to improve even well-established channels

Seasonality isn’t gone, but there are exciting ways, like personalized user experiences, to fill gaps in the traditional TV schedule.

Saisissez l'opportunité d'analyser vos propres données d'audience pour développer un catalogue d'audience distinct et pertinent pour vos clients publicitaires.

Soyez transparent avec les données afin d'aider les acheteurs à mieux faire correspondre l'inventaire aux résultats.

Le secteur a besoin de mesures communes pour vivre au cœur d'un écosystème adtech combinant le meilleur du linéaire et du numérique.

Prioritize media symbiosis, which requires more than just retrofitting the existing digital ecosystem

Provide a deduplicated, cross-media view of performance as a basis for comparison that cuts across all platforms.