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 게이지™, and it’s underpinned by Nielsen’s leading audience measurement services across streaming and linear TV.
매월 빠르게 읽을 수 있는 The Gauge 구독 기반 및 광고 지원 TV 프로그램의 썰물과 썰물, 텐트폴 이벤트와 블록버스터 개봉의 영향, 시장에서 가장 인기 있는 스트리밍 플랫폼 집계, 브랜드와 미디어 회사가 오늘날 시청자가 무엇을 시청하는지 이해하는 데 도움이 되는 다양한 세부 정보 등 TV 현황에 대한 유용한 인사이트가 가득합니다.
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.
미디어 컨버전스 시대
요즘 스트리밍과 선형 TV의 경계는 어디일까요?
Some of the most successful streaming programs in recent memory have been shows licensed from broadcast and cable TV, like 친구들, Seinfeld or Suits.
It’s not a new phenomenon. Netflix drew fans and accolades with AMC’s Breaking Bad 그리고 The Walking Dead long before originals like House of Cards 그리고 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.
오늘날 스트리밍 플랫폼과 선형 TV 간의 융합은 선형 TV의 방대한 백 카탈로그의 신디케이션을 넘어선 것입니다.
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.
수년에 걸친 진화
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.
미디어 파편화에 대한 해독제
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.
미디어 기업은 세분화를 수용하고 융합형 TV 오퍼링을 구축함으로써 더 광범위하고 다양한 시청자에게 프로그램의 가시성을 높일 수 있습니다.
미디어 컨버전스 측정
“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.
