Virtually 15 million years. Roughly 5 billion days. Or 1.3 x 1011 hours.
That’s the amount of leisure programming People collectively watched on streaming providers in 2021, based on Nielsen. Pushed by broad curiosity in drama, actuality and child’s programming, streaming viewing hours prolonged to the eleventh energy throughout our final journey across the solar.
What’s behind this mind-boggling quantity? For one, an ongoing shift in how folks frequently entry programming. Through the ultimate week of 2021, shoppers spent 33% of whole TV viewing minutes on streaming platforms. Per Nielsen measurement, this was the best share of viewing to this point captured by streaming in comparison with broadcast and cable TV. And fairly presumably, the tipping level at which on-demand streaming began to overhaul linear TV viewing as shoppers’ most popular leisure consumption technique. In February 2022 alone, for instance, People streamed 169.4 billion minutes of video content material.
The huge time spent viewing streaming content material has been fueled by the continued proliferation of latest streaming providers. New entrants from one-stop leisure content material storefronts to extra niche-driven gamers launched to compete with incumbent streaming stalwarts. Because the variety of obtainable providers has expanded, particular person gamers are discovering themselves in an ongoing quest to ship compelling content material to draw new viewers whereas retaining present ones.
Including, pausing or dropping a streaming service is a comparatively frictionless expertise for the person, and the growing variety of service choices is now overwhelming for audiences, which makes content material a key differentiator. What programming to develop, whom to solid, the place to put it and learn how to make it obtainable to viewers all turn out to be high questions that studios and distributors must reply. As streaming-first methods turn out to be the norm, content material metrics and the superior analytics they gas turn out to be essential.
To assist inform content material methods and techniques, enterprises all through the media and leisure ecosystem are leveraging a wealth of information from completely different sources to attain success within the face of competitors. This holds very true for content material creators and distributors who’re making an attempt to maneuver previous reliance on tentpole content material releases in favor of participating in steady optimization designed to carry resonant programming to market regularly. For these gamers, data-driven content material analytics play a essential function within the iterative course of behind sensible programming creation and distribution.
Reality might be present in content material knowledge and analytics. However quite a lot of components are likely to blur the image. For one, knowledge obtainable to the leisure ecosystem can run the gamut when it comes to sources and nature. What’s extra, it’s usually inconsistent when it comes to protection and scale. Information can run from first-party owned to third-party licensed metadata, from very uncooked to extremely normalized, from editorially curated to AI-created.
The abundance and number of knowledge raises an essential query for the {industry}: Are media and leisure enterprises contemplating the most effective knowledge?
Gamers want a lens of readability and consistency on the content material ecosystem, the programming panorama, distribution patterns and content material recognition. Normalized and editorially curated program metadata is the first part offering executives and analysts visibility into the whole lot from macro-level {industry} traits all the way down to micro-level traits of particular person applications. Viewers knowledge gives one other essential part, including an essential sign on content material consumption that helps to light up how broadly programming is capturing viewers and who they really are.
By wanting by means of a content material analytics lens, creators and homeowners could make knowledgeable selections about what to create and the place to put it to maximise monetization by means of licensing. On the distribution aspect, streaming providers, networks and platforms could make data-informed selections on learn how to put that programming in entrance of the precise audiences in an effort to optimize engagement and loyalty for his or her providers.
Gracenote, the content material options pillar of Nielsen, is uniquely positioned to offer the lens to the {industry}’s content material analytics. Primarily based on the breadth and depth of Gracenote metadata on leisure content material and the connectivity between programming belongings offered by the Gracenote ID, the corporate already helps the most important and most progressive TV suppliers ship superior content material search and discovery capabilities. By combining industry-standard metadata and IDs with trusted Nielsen viewers measurement knowledge and long-running knowledge experience, Gracenote is powering a brand new era of content material analytics choices.
As a result of Gracenote already tracks programming distribution throughout all platforms, each streaming and linear, the corporate has unparalleled perception into the content material market and the 26,847 distinctive TV exhibits and 620,896 particular person episodes obtainable now to U.S. viewers throughout all main streaming providers. Evaluation of the information reveals that the predominant drop technique utilized by these providers final yr was releasing all the exhibits episodes on the identical day versus rolling out particular person episodes on a weekly foundation. This similar day launch strategy was used for 9 occasions extra episodes than the weekly launch strategy.
Wanting even nearer, the common streaming program engaged viewers for 1.85 episodes per viewing day. As compared, among the many high 10% of binge-worthy exhibits, viewers had been engaged for two.45 episodes. Honing in on the highest 5%, the quantity went as much as 2.89 episodes, one extra episode per day in comparison with the common program.
So, what’s the important thing take-away right here? For equal hour-long applications, a present within the high 5% when it comes to binge-worthiness can carry an incremental hour of watch time per day to a streaming platform in comparison with a present that’s extra common when it comes to its binge-ability. Within the heated competitors to maximise engagement and time spent, that is invaluable perception that may truly transfer the needle on a essential enterprise KPI.
With content material analytics, a creator can establish the place to focus content material acquisition and consciousness in giant, siloed catalogs. They will see what alternatives there are to advertise or suggest content material to sure audiences. Programmers can decide the probability of viewers to binge watch a sure present to assist determine on the optimum drop technique. They usually can look forward into the following six months to see what the aggressive content material pipeline seems to be like to assist drive launch planning.
The media and leisure ecosystem has undoubtedly been working in hyperdrive of late. All of it begins with creating compelling programming that captures the eye of viewers and displays their various identities and pursuits. Efforts prolong to growing the person experiences that current that programming to the audiences who crave it. All of that is in service of maximizing return on funding for growing and delivering constantly excellent leisure.
Information and analytics are key to success for the M&E {industry} gamers engaged within the ongoing strategy of assessing {the marketplace}, figuring out alternatives, making selections and analyzing outcomes. After which doing it another time. Primarily based on the trusted nature of its knowledge and the highly effective analytics capabilities this knowledge permits, Gracenote is uniquely positioned to ship the options that allow content material creators, homeowners and distributors to maximise viewer engagement – and push whole streaming hours as much as but a better energy.
This text initially appeared in M&E Journal.
