Hub research: Network brand matters when choosing content
February 8, 2018
At the annual Media Insights and Engagement Conference on February 7th, Hub Entertainment Research released key findings about the impact of TV network brands on viewers. They revealed that although 41 per cent of consumers say that network brands don’t matter in their show viewing decisions, a deeper dive into their behaviours and perceptions demonstrates that networks have a major impact.
First, when given the chance to build their own bundle from a list of 52 networks, consumers are very selective in their decisions:
- When they’re told that price is no object, viewers chose only 19 networks, even when they could have chosen all 52.
- When prices-per-network are included, viewers are even more selective, choosing just nine networks for their bundle, with Netflix at the top of their list.
What’s more, when viewers are given descriptions of hypothetical TV shows across genres, interest in watching the show varies dramatically depending on the network we told them the show would be on:
- For example, Netflix generated the highest interest in the competitive reality show we tested—a genre the SVoD is not generally known for.
In addition to demonstrating the impact of brand, these findings also show SVoDs have transformed themselves from distributors of other companies’ content, to entertainment companies.
Hub concluded by explaining that in an environment where consumers are inundated with content, it’s critical to:
- Give them easy access to the brands they care about, without requiring them to deal with lots of brands and networks they don’t care about.
- Amazon Channels is an example of a platform that is embracing this model.
“These findings suggest that viewers have developed clear expectations for the kinds of viewing experience different brands—networks and SVoDs—will deliver,” said Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub Entertainment Research. “This new brand paradigm has wide reaching implications for brand marketing and distribution.”