Total television usage inched up 2% in October, bolstered by a 9.4% increase in broadcast viewing. While the seasonal uptick in October isn’t unique, this year’s gains were achieved without the benefit of a robust new programming schedule. Without any new scripted programming, the broadcast boost was almost entirely attributable to sports programming.

The robust NFL schedule and the MLB’s World Series were the primary drivers of the 15% rise in sports viewing across broadcast channels, powering October to its third consecutive month of broadcast gains. It was also the largest gain for broadcast since January 2023. The increase in sports viewing also attracted an influx of younger viewers: broadcast viewing among 18-24-year-olds was up 15%. On a year-over-year basis, however, total broadcast viewing was down 5.6% and the sports genre was down by 8%.

Cable benefited from double-digit gains across the news and sports genres (17% and 19%), with news taking the top-genre crown capturing 21.8% of cable viewing. While these gains resulted in 0.9% more viewing, it wasn’t enough to keep pace with the total TV trend, causing a loss of 0.3 share points for the month to land at 29.5%, the smallest share for the cable category to date.

Trending the opposite of broadcast, streaming gave back share for a third consecutive month, although usage was almost flat with September (-0.6%). Without the methodology change noted above, however, the share loss would have only been 0.4 instead of 0.9. While usage was largely stable across platforms, October featured a couple of unique data nuggets:

Suits remained the top program, but viewership was down a third from September.

• Suits remained the top program, but viewership was down a third from September. Netflix, which offers Suits along with Peacock, retained eight of the top 10 streaming titles in October.
• Disney+ viewing was up 1.5%, and held the other two top streaming titles: Bluey and Elemental.
• Amazon Prime Video usage was up 1% and continues to peak on Thursdays due to NFL games.

Without the typical rush of new scripted content this fall, it’s likely that we’ll continue to see atypical TV usage trends until mid-to-late first quarter 2024. At that point, it will be interesting to see if usage spikes, which would be a trend break from what we’re accustomed to seeing at that time of year.

October data trends with Brian Fuhrer

The Gauge provides a monthly macroanalysis of audience viewing behaviors across key television delivery platforms, including broadcast, streaming, cable and other sources. It also includes a breakdown of the major, individual streaming distributors. The chart itself represents monthly total television usage, broken out into share of viewing by category and by individual streaming distributors.

Methodology and frequently asked questions

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This article focuses on the last two ingredients: What specific technology is the industry using to capture viewing data, and what metrics are media companies and advertisers using to conduct their business?

But first, let’s review a few key tenets of TV measurement.

Tenets of modern TV measurement

Counting every viewer

To assign viewing to the right person, we currently use within our panel what we call a ‘people meter,’ which can take the form of a set-top device with a remote control or a wearable device, like a clip, pendant or wristband. Our first people meter dates back to 1987, and the technology is crucial in an industry where the ultimate focus is on the individual, not the household.

The benefit of having high-quality individual viewer data is two-fold: It provides demographic audience estimates⁴ and it allows us to estimate co-viewing in big datasets.

Two different audience data uses

Now that we’ve examined some of the key technologies used to capture the what and who of TV viewing, what do we do with it?

There are two main users for that data: media buyers (i.e. agencies and advertisers) and media sellers (i.e. publishers and platforms), and each constituency looks at TV measurement from a slightly different angle.

For media companies, the most iconic measure of a TV show’s success — and how the inventory should be priced — has been the rating. It’s synonymous with our company name and a big part of its appeal comes from its simplicity: It’s just the percentage of the (TV-owning) population that watched a particular program or commercial. There are many variations: A rating may be based on live viewing only, live + same day playback, live + 3 days, live + 7 days, or even live + 35 days. And there are ratings for households as well as for specific demographic groups. 

Many of these figures are published daily by the trade press, and we publish a few topline rankings ourselves every week. With more and more people watching TV content in streaming-first homes,⁵ we are starting to size up success in terms of impressions to account for all possible viewing platforms.⁶  

For brands and their media agencies, the objective is to reach a set number of viewers within a particular demographic profile, with the right creative and the right frequency to stimulate interest for their product or service. Frequency control isn’t always easy to achieve, especially when a campaign runs across multiple platforms, and TV advertisers often end up buying gross rating points (GRPs) where reach and frequency are multiplied but frequency remains largely uncontrolled for individual viewers. Ultimately though, advertisers are most concerned with ad impressions. Programs, networks and platforms are vehicles to reach their target audiences as efficiently as possible.

While media companies have an incentive to define TV viewership broadly, advertisers have an incentive to define it narrowly and only pay for impressions that hit their targets. So, how do they meet in the middle?

Current and future measurement state

To transact today, media buyers and sellers rely on average commercial minute ratings that measure the average viewership of all of the commercials that air within a program. The most widely used of those metrics is called ‘C3,’ and it takes into account all live + 3 days’ worth of a program’s playback, typically for all adults 18-49 (viewed as a key buying group), but sometimes for other key demos as well. A similar metric (C7) can be used when 7 days’ worth of playback is deemed to be preferable. 

Two important developments are underway. One relates to the source of the data and the other to the way those metrics themselves are calculated.

These changes will require careful planning and continued testing, but they hold the promise of bringing TV measurement closer to the way that digital advertising is measured today, with media companies able to place a premium on effective ad package positions and advertisers able to measure the performance of individual commercials—and ultimately better manage their media spend.

Notes

¹ I.e., Return path data (RPD) from set-top boxes and automatic content recognition (ACR) data from smart TVs. See Need to know – the pros and cons of big data in audience measurement for more details.
² For more details on the promises of panel + big data measurement, read Need to know – what’s a panel, and why does it matter?
³ Watermarks are source codes that are embedded into content
⁴ TV News Check: Nielsen remains the currency of the TV realm (May 10, 2023)
⁵ Nielsen: Connectivity is driving how Americans are engaging with TV (2023)
⁶ Broadcasting & Cable: Impressions 2.0: the great equalizer (Feb 8, 2022)

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Combined, American audiences streamed just over 4.2 billion minutes of these five shows in that single week. That’s more than 72% of the time that audiences spent watching the top 10 original programs during the same week.

The availability of content in more than one place reflects a shift in distribution strategies—one that has been taking shape throughout this year. During the week of Jan. 2, 2023, for example, none of the top 10 acquired programs were available on multiple platforms. A week later, New Amsterdam hit the top 10 list after debuting on Netflix and Peacock. At the start of fall, almost half of the top 10 acquired titles were available on multiple services.

The pivot to wider distribution strategies is evident across the media landscape, and it reflects a number of factors, none of which are universally applicable.

• Free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels are on the rise, and publishers want to get content where audiences are. In September, the three FAST channels independently measured in the Gauge accounted for 3.2% of total TV.
• The cost of producing a new show doesn’t always pay off. Citadel, for example, had a reported budget of $200 million-$300 million and failed to appear on Nielsen’s top 10 list of most-watched streaming content.
• The summer strikes created a lack of new content this fall. Yellowstone, a Paramount original, has found a new audience on CBS, and the ratings have been strong enough for the network to start running season 2.
• Perspectives about content licensing are changing. While likely a financially motivated move, Warner Bros. Discovery made headlines earlier this year when it licensed a number of HBO titles to Netflix. Incidentally, two of these titles (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) landed on Nielsen’s top 10 list the week of Sept. 18. 

In looking at the widening range of content available to U.S. audiences, the large majority is not exclusive to a single channel or source. TV viewers had more than 1.1 million unique video titles² to choose from as of October 2023, and only 34.7% were exclusive to either a streaming service or a linear channel.

Among the examples of expanded distribution, none stand out like Suits, which recently held the No. 1 spot on Nielsen’s top 10 list for a record 12 consecutive weeks (Ozark previously held the record with 11 weeks at No. 1). During those 12 weeks, viewers watched more than 36.8 billion minutes of the legal dramedy—enough to spark the show’s creator to start developing a follow-up program.

And it’s not just owners of scripted content that are broadening the reach of their content. Helped by the lack of new content this fall and football’s huge fan base, for example, the NFL has amplified the presence of this year’s Monday Night Football (MNF) games by airing them across three different networks.

While the other two days that feature one game (Sunday night and Thursday night) are only being shown on one telecast each week, the NFL is doubling down on Mondays: Weeks 2 and 3 featured doubleheaders on ABC and ESPN, and all other Monday games will air on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. Last year, there was only one doubleheader, and only the first three games were on ABC. In total, weeks 1-7 this year drew a total audience of more than 138 million viewers, compared with just under 112 million from games 1-7 last year.

The viewership data for this year’s MNF games highlights that making content available in multiple places drives higher viewership—especially when not all audiences have access to the same channels and platforms. The strategy is also broadening the demographics of who’s watching, along with some help from Taylor Swift. In aggregate, this year’s first seven Monday games have attracted more than 10 million additional female viewers.

In years past, when there were fewer places to find content—and fewer options to spend money on—content owners and distributors were able to attract larger audiences to a single source.

Today, audiences in the U.S. have more than 32,200 linear channels and 89 streaming video sources³ to choose from, and viewers are exploring them all. This reality presents a much different scenario than when audiences spent most of their TV time with aggregated, provider-chosen options within a single environment.

While the dispersal of viewing is unique from a historical perspective, audience measurement data provides evidence that reach and engagement increase when content is available across channels—and distribution trends are following suit. As the industry begins to look ahead to next year’s content and advertising plans, taking these changes into consideration could help, especially in a year when new content will likely be limited. 

For publishers, finding new opportunities to license content can grow buzz and viewership around existing content. Understanding these new patterns for audience engagement will be critical for advertisers and agencies when considering where to reach viewers in the year ahead—especially as they navigate the quickly evolving FAST landscape. But while program-level engagement highlights broad viewing trends, advertisers and agencies should explore channel-specific viewership for the insight they need as they plan and execute their ad buying strategies.

Looking for channel-specific viewership? Check out Nielsen’s Streaming Content Ratings for show-specific TV viewing data. 

Sources

¹Acquired titles are those that have been licensed from other content owners after first airing somewhere elsewhere first. For example, audiences can find S.W.A.T., a CBS original, on Hulu, Netflix and Paramount+.
²Gracenote Global Video Data
³Gracenote Global Video Data; October 2023. Each channel represents a unique source of linear programming, such as ABC and Flicks of Fury, an original channel on Pluto TV. Each streaming video source represents an individual provider, such as Netflix and Disney+.

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As the television landscape evolves, access to local sports is changing—and the price point for some fans couldn’t be better: free. How is this possible? As audiences continue to migrate away from traditional cable packages, a handful of teams are partnering with local TV stations to provide fans with free over-the-air (OTA) access to local games.

While the cost—and access—is a breath of fresh air for sports fans, viewership is the motivating factor for sports teams—something that has been declining in recent years because regional sports networks (RSNs) content is bundled in traditional cable and satellite TV packages.

Over the past year, a handful of professional sports teams have entered deals that provide all fans in their broadcast regions the ability to watch local games for free via digital OTA antenna:

• Phoenix Mercury (WNBA)
• Phoenix Suns (NBA)
• Utah Jazz (NBA)
• Las Vegas Golden Knights (NHL)
• Arizona Coyotes (NHL)

These teams aren’t alone in realizing the reach that traditional broadcast programming has. Many MLB teams, for example, broadcast a portion of their games exclusively through local TV stations in combination with cable. The New York Mets, for example, broadcast 24 of the games in their 2023 season exclusively on WPIX; the other 124 were broadcast across SNY, a local RSN. And not too far away, the Philadelphia Phillies broadcast 12 of their 2023 games on local TV.

In choosing to broadcast some games through local stations, the Mets added 17% to their total reach throughout the 2023 season. We see a similar trend in Philadelphia, as the Phillies added 13% to their total reach during the regular season by broadcasting a selection of games through the market’s local TV station. Combined, approximately 950,000 viewers of 2023 Mets and Phillies games watched only through traditional broadcast programming.  

TV rights deals that provide non-cable audiences with access to local games aligns with how fans watch TV. As of September, only 46% of U.S. homes¹ access programming through a traditional cable or satellite service. That’s down 23.6% since September of 2021.

The shift to OTA broadcasting by the Mercury, Suns, Jazz and Golden Knights marks a return to how local games were televised before RSNs became commonly distributed through the expanded basic tiers of cable programming in the 1990s. The new deals, however, do more than just take a page out of the history books. Each comes with a companion direct-to-consumer streaming option as well, which also aligns with the growing number of homes that get their programming from broadband internet service, as well as viewers’ time streaming. In both July and August of this year, streaming accounted for more than 38% of total TV usage.

While these deals have yet to affect the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons, the Suns-Mercury-Gray Television deal went into effect just in time for the Mercury’s 2023 season, which ended Sept. 10. With games available locally through OTA access, the Mercury’s average household audience was nearly 6x larger than during the team’s 2022 season (when local games were broadcast via RSN). It’s also noteworthy that the percentage of OTA homes in Phoenix is more than 7 percentage points higher than the national average.

As the Phoenix Suns and Las Vegas Golden Knights begin their 2023-24 seasons, we can see the potential reach gains associated with transitioning to broadcast telecasts. Through their RSN broadcasts, the Suns reached an average of 2.24% of the market’s TV viewers per game last season, while the Golden Knights reached an average of 2.16%. And to ease the viewing transition for fans, the Suns offered free antennas for local viewing in the lead up to the season. The offer was so popular that the team had to order more.

Amid the evolving TV landscape, the audience has more choice than ever, and the arrival of new platforms and channels amplifies the complexity of knowing what’s on, where to find it and whether there’s a cost to access it. From a local sports perspective, the shift among some teams to OTA broadcasts highlights their focus on ensuring that as many fans can see the games as possible, and at a price point that can’t be beat.

Source

¹Nielsen National TV panel

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This year, in fact, four recent big-budget horror movies debuted on Nielsen’s top 10 list when they became available to streaming audiences.

Given these four films’ large budgets, high-profile casts and well-known directors, they were never in any danger of not being seen by prospective viewers. That, however, is not the case for the thousands of other horror titles that are screaming to be watched. In fact, TV audiences now have nearly 1.1 million² unique horror titles to choose from, which span across six different sub-genres. While the vast majority fall into the general horror category, more than 189,000 fall into the paranormal sub-category.

With that much choice, combined with an ever-growing array of places to find content, it can be challenging for viewers to find something they’re interested in. In fact, 44% of respondents in Nielsen’s June 2023 streaming consumer survey said it’s getting hard to find the content they want because there are too many services available. And what’s more, only 62% say they know what they want to watch when they open their streaming service. 

To help audiences on their content journeys, recommendation engines and top 10 lists have become standard within video on demand (VOD) streaming services. But promoted content carousels typically feature a very small fraction of a platform’s content—and top 10 lists offer perspective into popular titles among all users rather than content specific users might like. Through that lens, it’s not surprising that only 27% of survey respondents strongly agree that menu recommendations are useful in finding something to watch. They believe visuals are more important, as 36% say a title’s thumbnail image is extremely/very important in deciding what to watch.

With consumers increasingly expecting personalized experiences, content owners and streaming services can leverage tools like Gracenote’s Personalized Imagery for thumbnails and Streaming Channels Data to help audiences find content when they aren’t familiar with specific program titles. Descriptive metadata, like Video Descriptors, can also fill in the gaps that traditional program information has. 

The basic program information associated with John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween, for example, isn’t capable of helping a platform or service suggest this film to audiences looking for something that interests them at a personal level. That’s because basic program information only includes details like program title, summary, genre, production date, primary cast, run time and country of origin.

But when a platform or service leverages the 30 individual Gracenote Video Descriptors across 10 different content attributes associated with the film, it can facilitate more meaningful content journeys for viewers. These descriptors can also assist in contextual ad targeting.

In addition to helping audiences find content that interests them, metadata will become increasingly important from a competitive, personalization perspective as individual titles become available across multiple services. This trend, while new for many big-budget productions, is very common for mid- and small-budget projects seeking to get as much audience exposure as possible. 

Excluding big-budget films like Nope and Scream VI, non-exclusivity in the horror genre is very common. And when a single program is available in more than one place, the onus of audience engagement is in the hands of the individual services. According to Gracenote Video Data, only one-third of the video titles available in the U.S. are exclusive to either linear TV or a subscription service.

To illustrate, let’s look at Terrifier 2, a break-out success story from last year. Made for approximately $250,000, the independent slasher sequel gained so much media attention because of its over-the-top effects that it ultimately gained widespread theatrical release and grossed $10.6 million in the U.S. alone. Now, as work on a third installment with a 7-figure budget is in development, Terrifier 2 is making the rounds across a number of streaming services in the lead up to Halloween. While some services change their libraries frequently, online streaming guide JustWatch highlights that audiences can find the film on four subscription services and two FAST services. It’s also available for rent on nine services and for purchase on seven.

While the variety of platform choice and access options is key for audiences, services like JustWatch wouldn’t be able to aggregate the options for viewers if it weren’t for granular metadata and unique content IDs that facilitate content searches across the internet—not just within individual platforms.

“The power of metadata isn’t limited to the content or the platform,” says Filiz Bahmanpour, VP of product at Gracenote. “When you do an internet search, it becomes a tool that looks at deeper metadata that helps identify why an audience member might want to watch something. And with metadata today, descriptors even involve things like mood, theme and scenario.”

Combined, the universal ID for Terrifier 2 ensures that audiences can find it, and the 34 unique Video Descriptors provide content aggregators and streaming services with the ability to provide more personalized content journeys for their audiences.

Sources

1. The-numbers.com
2. Gracenote Global Video Data, October 2023

For additional insights, download our latest State of Play report, which focuses on the importance of data-driven personalization and streaming content discovery.

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Through the lens of overall TV viewing, September looked very similar to August, masking the nuances that illuminate true audience behavior. While total usage was generally flat with August, viewing behavior in September was notably unique. That uniqueness stems from changes in audience composition. With all kids and teens now back in school, for example, streaming usage dipped by double digits among school-age viewers. Comparatively, the arrival of college football and a new NFL season provided a big boost to broadcast viewing among 18-54 year olds.

Notable channel-level viewership shifts in September include:

• Broadcast viewing among 12-17 year-olds increased 26% (albeit from a small base)
• Broadcast viewing among 18-49 year-olds increased by 35%
• Broadcast viewing among 25-54 year-olds increased by almost 33%
• Streaming usage among 12-17 year-olds declined 19%
• Cable viewing among 12-17 year-olds declined 15%

Broadcast TV viewing increased almost 13% in September, bolstered by the return of college and professional football. Within broadcast, viewing of sports programming increased a whopping 360%. The important nuance one level deeper is that the biggest infusion of viewers came from younger audiences: viewing among people under 50 increased 33%, and viewing among people 25-34 increased 47%. Unsurprisingly, the top 20 telecasts involved a football game, a pre-game show or a post-game wrap up.

Sporting events were also impactful for cable, as the genre saw a 25.5% bump in viewing. ESPN carried the top 11 telecasts: 10 were football-related, and the U.S. Open took ninth place. Despite the increased sports viewing, total cable viewing slipped 1.1% from August, led by declines of 10% and 5.9% for the news and feature film genres, respectively.

Streaming viewing declined for the second month in a row, but the Suits phenomenon continued, racking up more than 8 billion minutes of viewing in September. And as it was on broadcast and cable, sports was a factor for Prime Video, which saw a 7.5% bump in viewership as a result of NFL Thursday Night Football and the second season of The Wheel of Time. With the return of TNF on Prime, the two Thursdays with games represented the highest viewing days for Prime Video. Tubi and the Roku Channel were the other two streaming services to see viewing lifts in September. And with the increase in broadcast viewing, it comes as no surprise that linear streaming climbed to represent 5.7% of TV usage—a high water mark for 2023 so far.

With limited new scripted content forthcoming in the short term, sports will remain a prime option for viewers, especially as the new NHL and NBA seasons start in October. Compared with the NFL, NHL and NBA games span broadcast and cable channels, which could play a role in TV viewing behaviors next month.

September data trends with Brian Fuhrer

The Gauge provides a monthly macroanalysis of audience viewing behaviors across key television delivery platforms, including broadcast, streaming, cable and other sources. It also includes a breakdown of the major, individual streaming distributors. The chart itself represents monthly total television usage, broken out into share of viewing by category and by individual streaming distributors.

Methodology and frequently asked questions

The post Sports gave broadcast channels a second straight month of viewing gains in September appeared first on Nielsen.

That complexity stems from the inherent nuances within the community—nuances that are critical considerations for any creator, distributor or brand thinking about engaging with Hispanic audiences. For those that invest in building trust with Hispanic audiences, the upside is significant.

“Building strong ties with Hispanic audiences goes beyond producing inclusive content and effective ads,” says Stacie de Armas, SVP of Diverse Insights and Intelligence at Nielsen. “Latinos value quality media and trustworthy content—the factors that lend authenticity and affirm credibility. Smart brands work within these ecosystems, boosting their standing and building loyalty among the community.”

According to our 2023 We Are All Human and Hispanic Sentiment Study, powered by Toluna, 84% of Latinos say they favor brands that play a positive role in their community, and 63% say they’re more likely to buy from brands that feature people like them in their advertising. 

To activate on these insights, brands and media companies can nurture relationships with the community by:

• Ensuring cultural relatability
• Advocating for authentic representation
• Maintaining consistent brand positioning
• Demonstrating responsibility
• Actively engaging with the community

Build trust through community

Representation, inclusion and cultural relevance are important well before consumers make purchase decisions. People are constantly exposed to brand messaging, and consumers recall brand messages even when they’re not considering a purchase. That’s why building strong brand sentiment, via authentically engaging with the community, is a critical step, regardless of where a person is within a purchase cycle. And when brands build positive sentiment with consumers, the consumers are more likely to become a customer when they ultimately seek to make a purchase.

Balancing language and relevance in media

Watching TV shows and consuming other forms of media hold different layers of significance for different audiences. For Hispanics, the focus isn’t solely on language proficiency or the language in which the content is delivered. Instead, it’s about striking a balance between language preference and the relevance of the content.

Our data highlights this complex relationship. Forty percent of Hispanics state that it’s important for shows to be in their preferred language, while an additional 32% find it somewhat important. Interestingly, this contrasts with 70% of non-Hispanic whites who find language an important factor in their media choices.

These numbers show that Hispanics are highly adaptable when it comes to language; they’re open to consuming content in Spanish or English, provided the content is culturally meaningful and resonant, demonstrating that shared experiences can be more pivotal than language itself. The finding for media and advertisers is clear: Focus not just on the language of delivery, but also on creating content that fits seamlessly into the cultural tapestry of Hispanics’ lives.

In the evolving media landscape, one truth stands out with absolute clarity: the burgeoning opportunity within the Hispanic market. The key to effectively engaging the Hispanic community depends on understanding the critical nuances within this rich tapestry of cultures. A potent mix of cultural relatability, authenticity and inclusion will be the touchstones of successful interactions. Trust building is not an abstract concept; it demands a deep understanding of the individuals that make up the community, and those who invest in understanding stand to benefit the most.

For additional insights, download our 2023 Hispanic Diverse Intelligences Series report. 

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The changes aren’t likely to affect individual team fandom, but the shifts, which are the most extensive in recent history, will affect how teams show up on TV and who will get to see their games.

As with many aspects of the media industry, the audience is the key factor in the conference realignment, much of which won’t take effect until the 2024 season. That’s when eight teams will leave the Pac-12 to join conferences with more lucrative TV deals: Four will join the Big Ten and four will join the Big 12.

Unlike the other Power Five¹ conference members, the Pac-12 does not have a long-term TV rights deal, which has a direct impact on the revenue each member school receives. For example, the Big Ten expects its seven-year deal with CBS, FOX and NBC to be lucrative enough to distribute between $80 million and $100 million annually to each member school. The $8 billion deal is the biggest in the history of college athletics, and it gives the contract holders access to some of NCAA football’s highest-ranked and most-watched teams, including Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

Conference membership affects all sports within each member school, but the shifts in recent years have all been motivated by the rights associated with live football games. Based on an analysis of the value associated with each conference’s TV exposure during the 2022 season, the realignments that take effect next year will have a significant impact for the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12.

The value of TV exposure is clear. One-third of Americans say they’re college football fans², making the league the fourth-most popular in the U.S. (behind the NFL, NBA and MLB). And big teams draw big viewership: More than 17 million viewers³ watched last year’s marquee late-season matchup between Ohio State and Michigan, the highest viewership of the regular season. For comparison, nearly 2.3 million viewers³ watched the Brooklyn Nets play the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of last year’s NBA playoffs.

While top-ranking teams and storied rivalries will always command national TV coverage, the implications of the conference membership changes will have different outcomes at the local market level. Last year’s week 8 game between UCLA and Oregon (which will both leave the Pac-12 next year) attracted a national audience of 3.34 million³. Once these two teams join the Big Ten, they will expand the conference’s TV audience across the entire country and both coasts.

To better understand how the conference changes will shape local TV viewership beyond individual games, we examined the difference between Pac-12 and Big Ten TV viewing in Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle during the 2022 season. These designated market areas (DMAs) are home to four West Coast teams⁴ that will switch conferences next year.

Due to the size of these three markets, last season’s Pac-12 programming reached 123% more households and 151% more individual viewers than Big Ten programming did⁵. And while the 0.1 difference in co-viewing might seem insignificant at face value, it becomes far more meaningful when you multiply it by the total viewing population of the three DMAs.

When we break down the aggregate conference viewing, we can see the impact that the conference changes will have on each individual market. Despite the sprawling population of Los Angeles—home to UCLA and USC—Portland stands to gain the biggest percentage lift in viewership next season.

While the Big Ten will benefit next year from the arrival of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, the Big 12 will benefit from the arrival of the University of Colorado, home to this year’s hottest college football story. The Colorado Buffaloes have been in the news ever since NFL legend Deion Sanders took over as head coach last year, but the team’s 3-1 start, including an upset over TCU (Texas Christian University) to open the season, has made their games must-see TV for football fans. In fact, the team’s double-overtime victory over Colorado State on Sept. 16 attracted 9.3 million viewers³ despite the fact that it didn’t start until after 10 pm ET. The team’s Sept. 23 game against Oregon attracted more than 10 million live and same-day viewers, the largest audience of the season.

While our national TV exposure value analysis doesn’t suggest a significant change (+1%) for the Big 12 when Colorado joins next year (along with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah), the impact on local TV viewing is a different story. The impact of Coach Prime was immediate, as the Denver TV audience for the Buffaloes’ first game was 117% higher than last year’s. And that was just a starting point.

In aggregate, the increased attention bodes well for the Pac-12 this year and the Big 12 next year, as the average viewership at the household level is up 976% and up more than 1,100% among viewers 2 and older. The hype over the Buffaloes is also boosting co-viewing by 15% this year.

There’s no mistaking the appeal of NCAA college football among sports fans, especially when big matchups come to town. And while marquee rivalries will always command national TV exposure, we can see how local market TV viewership contributes to the value associated with the teams involved with the most recent changes among the Power 5 NCAA conferences.

Sources

¹The five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in Division I NCAA football: ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC
²Nielsen Fan Insights; Q2 2023
³Nielsen National TV Panel; live + same day viewing (3 a.m.-3 a.m.)
⁴UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington
⁵Nielsen Local TV measurement

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FAST platforms can take different forms, but channel aggregators like the Roku Channel, Pluto TV and Tubi are the most common and have the greatest reach. Unlike traditional video on demand (VOD) services, FAST platforms stream their programming on a linear schedule, just like traditional cable services (many offer VOD as well).

To build their content libraries, channel aggregators source programs and movies through distribution deals with individual content owners ranging from massive media companies to independent owners and distributors. The Roku Channel, for example, includes channels from NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, MotorTrend, FIFA, the BBC, Jellysmack and Nosey.

The importance of standardized metadata in FAST

While a boon for content-hungry viewers, the wealth of content sourced from different content owners can present challenges for platforms looking to enhance or personalize user experiences when channel counts rise. As of April, for example, Google’s live TV service boasted more than 800 free channels. When there is no standard approach for producing the metadata that describes individual programs and movies, search and discovery isn’t typically optimized at the platform level.

For channel aggregators with massive catalogs of content from an array of distributors, metadata quality, completeness and standardization can ease the process of arranging, sorting and showcasing content in ways that best engage audiences. That’s where metadata normalization and enrichment can help.

Content owners, for example, can apply rich, normalized metadata to the programming they distribute to channel aggregators to ensure that audiences can find it easily. 

Gracenote’s Streaming Channels Data, for example, helps platform customers better enable audiences to find content when they’re not familiar with specific programming titles. This is especially useful for theme- and topic-specific channels, such as true crime, mystery and war. Here, descriptive metadata, program imagery and connected IDs best position programming for viewers interested in focused topics—even when they’re not familiar with specific program titles.

But the importance of metadata normalization and enrichment isn’t limited to program descriptions, attributes, identifiers and context. Imagery is just as important, if not moreso. That’s because imagery is the primary way to merchandise a program or movie to viewers. This puts an enormous burden on image metadata. And because each FAST aggregator has its own user experience, metadata imagery needs to be ample. One metadata image in a single resolution and ratio will not work universally.

Normalizing and standardizing metadata is just a starting point for personalized FAST channels. When combined with individual viewer behavior, metadata can help FAST platforms prioritize what individual audiences see. Roku and the NFL, for example, recently launched the NFL Zone within the Roku Sports experience, which offers football fans a centralized location to find out where to watch live and upcoming games. As live sports continue transitioning to streaming services, audiences will rally around solutions and experiences that eliminate the growing fragmentation of live sports rights across various services and platforms.

In addition to appealing to audiences, FAST channels are increasingly gaining traction with advertisers. In fact, media research house Digital TV Research recently forecasted that global FAST revenue will grow from $6 billion in 2022 to $18 billion in 2028. And given the digital nature of CTV and FAST platforms, rich metadata can enable contextual advertising at scale within the programmatic CTV supply chain to bring immediate value to both publishers and advertisers.

For example, there are 29 individual Gracenote Video Descriptors across 10 different attributes for Top Secret UFO Projects Declassified, which is one of the featured programs on A+E’s Mystery TV FAST channel. In a privacy-first environment void of third-party cookies, these descriptors can assist in contextual ad targeting. Publishers can enable contextual ads by passing unique program IDs in the bidstream when the supply and demand side platforms are enabled to reference these rich content tags.

The streaming industry’s wealth of choice now puts the fate of any platform, service or program in the hands of the audience. And as FAST channel aggregators increase their content libraries, success will hinge on their ability to quickly connect viewers with content they’re looking for. And while advertisers will clearly monitor viewing behaviors across services, they too can improve audience experiences by leveraging data that can better inform their campaigns and deliver more personalized ad messages.

With an array of occasions to celebrate within the upcoming holiday season, content distributors, platforms and advertisers have an abundance of opportunities to up their engagement game with audiences. Halloween is up first, and content metadata can be the key to serving up the right programming, whether it be for party planners, pumpkin carvers, costume shoppers or horror enthusiasts.

For additional insights, download our latest State of Play report, which focuses on the importance of data-driven personalization and streaming content discovery.

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The challenge is real. According to data from podcast search engine Listen Notes, audiences now have more than 3.1 million podcast titles to choose from. That’s more choice than they have across linear TV and streaming services combined¹. Vast choice notwithstanding, podcast engagement continues to rise, as the number of Americans listening has increased by 45% in the last five years².

In addition to a larger listener base, audiences are listening more than they have in the past. That can be attributed to both the increased awareness of podcasts and the fact that many consumers have returned to physical offices, which requires a commute. In fact, in-car/while in public transportation is now the most popular place to listen to podcasts among people 18-34 and 35-49³.

The rising engagement with podcasts is a clear signal of the opportunity for brands. When you complement that engagement with the fact that podcast ads can boost brand awareness by 13 percentage points⁴, the upside is even brighter. Knowing how to achieve that potential, however, is where the challenge often lies, simply because measuring the effectiveness of ads in newer media is different from measuring ad effectiveness in traditional media.

For example, we reported in our 2023 Nielsen Annual Marketing Report that 54% of global marketers plan to raise their spending on podcast advertising in the coming year (in North America, the percentage is 66%). They’re not alone, as the most recent podcast ad revenue forecast from the IAB suggests that the amount could more than double over the next four years, hitting approximately $4 billion by 2025. The downside of that growth, however, is a lack of confidence in knowing if the spending is doing its job. Only 49% of the marketers surveyed for this year’s marketing report said they are either extremely or very confident in their ability to measure the ROI of their podcast advertising. That’s the lowest level of confidence across digital channels⁵.

The knowledge gap between understanding the potential of podcasts as a marketing channel and how to capitalize on it highlights why marketers don’t view it as very effective. The good news is that Nielsen has identified the five drivers of brand lift for podcast advertising, as well as how much weight they each carry in driving lift. For podcast advertising, brand recall is the biggest driver of brand lift, followed by enjoyability and how captivating the creative is.

Importantly, the influence of these brand lift drivers varies from industry to industry. While brand recall is the biggest driver of lift from an average perspective, for example, it’s far less influential in financial services and consumer packaged goods. For those industries, having a higher baseline awareness (i.e., familiarity without any ad exposures) is much more important, complemented by ads that are relatable and enjoyable. For auto brands, being captivating is the most influential.

At a more granular level, these five attributes have different effects on specific key performance indicators, such as affinity, brand familiarity and recommendation intent. And when it comes to purchase intent, enjoyability rises to the top across podcast advertising.

Among marketers, brand building and new customer acquisition remain top priorities—priorities that depend on understanding how their ads affect brand lift. Somewhat surprisingly, research from Christine Moorman, who oversees the annual CMO Survey, highlights that only 3% of marketers measure brand equity consistently.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Marketers will remain unable to assess brand equity if they don’t track it. And we know from recent years that the media industry will continue to welcome new platforms, channels and services to engage content-hungry audiences. And now, with insight into what drives brand lift in podcast advertising, advertisers and agencies have a clear blueprint for measuring brand equity—and how to improve it.

For additional insights about brand lift drivers in emerging media, download our 5 brand building factors for emerging media report.

Sources

¹Per Gracenote Video Data, audiences across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico and Germany now have more than 2.7 million individual video titles to choose from.

²Edison Research; “Infinite Dial,” 2023; P12+.

³Nielsen Scarborough Podcast Buying Power, May 2023

⁴Nielsen Podcast Brand Impact norms database, Q2 2023

⁵Digital channels include email, search, social media, native advertising, online display, online video, CTV, streaming audio and podcasts.

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