Eurodata TV: Young viewers continue to shift online
October 3, 2017
Viewers watched on average for 3 hours and 48 minutes per day per person in the first half of 2017 in the top 5 countries in Europe (France, Germany, UK, Spain and Italy), with TV unquestionably remaining the preferred screen, states the mid-year review from Eurodata TV Worldwide and TAPE Consultancy. However, the trend to more internet viewing is sustained.
“In the major European countries, watching television programmes on internet is becoming general practice, and it can represent a substantial additional audience for certain content, such as targeted fictional content or youth entertainment,” noted Frédéric Vaulpré, Vice-President of Eurodata TV Worldwide. “Sport has also confirmed its appeal by continuing to perform extremely well. As king of live TV, it also attracts its own audience of catch-uppers whenever there is a significant time difference,” he added.
Fiction and Entertainment
Certain programme genres seem to be watched increasingly in delinearised fashion and via internet. “Demain nous appartient” (Tomorrow belongs to us) shown this summer on TF1 attracted an additional 36 per cent of viewers thanks to time-shifted, catch-up and online viewing. The same was true for the Dutch series “Goede tijden, slechte tijden” (good things, bad things); episodes broadcast between January and August 2017 on RTL4 increased by almost 20 per cent the number of viewers watching via TV broadcasts.
Computers are No. 2 and young people are using their smartphones
Computers are the leading screens just after televisions. In France, they represent 52 per cent of online programming TV consumption. However, smartphones are one step ahead of computers for youth-oriented channels (such as W9 in France), and tablets rank first for children’s channels (Gulli in France).
Tablet in the morning, smartphone in the evening
Which device is being watched and when? In France, tablets have become No.1 for watching TV online between 6am and 7am. In the evening mobile telephone use increases.
4-screen television audience measurement is expanding and has recently been introduced in four countries (France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark). These pioneers are due to be joined in 2018 by some 15 other countries, such as Japan, Norway, the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, the Czech Republic, Italy and Malaysia.
Innovative strategies for traditional channels and new players
In an environment where new usages are becoming increasingly significant, broadcasters of TV content on the web, and pure players in particular, are becoming serious competitors for the pay-TV channels. Some pure players now offer packages of channels in their SVoD offering. For example, in the UK, Austria and Germany, this is true of players such as Amazon Prime Instant Video (already present in the US), and also PlayStation Vue in the United States, who are riding high on their successful reputations to attract online viewers. At the same time, traditional content broadcasters such as HBO or Canal+ are refining their business models and are offering increasingly competitive deals for their online packages. These allow viewers to combine their choice of online content and create their own TV line up at a lower cost.
In addition to these new business models, channels have developed innovative digital strategies to highlight their programmes. They can break with the traditional broadcasting timeline, for example by debuting the programme season with an online or SVoD broadcast. They have also launched ‘pop-up’ channels whose lifespan depends on the events to which they are dedicated. There are also some new story-telling formats, such as NBC Left Field, the US platform of short documentaries relayed on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube which is bringing video journalism into the digital strategy of traditional broadcasters.
The latest programme trends: nostalgia, awaking to today’s world and escapism
With nearly 6,000 new recurring programmes launched since the beginning of the year, of which 52 per cent were original creations, the television industry and OTT platforms have increasingly demonstrated how dynamic they are.
“To date the OTT platforms have primarily concentrated on scripted and documentary content in terms of their original output… that is now changing and the unscripted world in general is fast becoming an area of interest. This could well present yet another key turning point in the content business, as the online players begin to deliver a breadth of content comparable to the linear outlets” according to Paul Youngbluth, Director at Tape Consultancy.