Audiences are increasingly shifting their attention from linear TV to streaming/CTV. This development holds great potential for both advertisers and broadcasters – and, of course, consumers, who continue to benefit from the increasing breadth of content choice, the AudienceProject noted in its new study.
Although linear television has been declared “dead” many times over the last few years, the report revealed that linear TV viewing slightly increases in the United States and the Nordics. With that said, the overall trend is that television content consumption is moving from linear TV to streaming/CTV platforms.
In the UK and Germany, linear TV viewing drops to a record low level, and in most countries, less than two-thirds of consumers now watch commercial linear TV on a weekly basis. On top of that, the vast majority of consumers find linear TV ads irrelevant (up to 93%) and their frequency excessive (up to 73%). And to underline the likely continuation of the migration to digital content consumption, in most countries, less than half of the population see themselves watching linear TV at all in 5 years.
● STREAMING REPLACES LINEAR TV VIEWING
Whilst the legacy delivery of content is clearly under pressure, the appetite for TV-style content knows no limits, as streaming consumption keeps on increasing. Up to a quarter of the audience are watching less linear TV while streaming more content compared to last year, showing the extent to which consumers are replacing linear TV with streaming.
In all countries measured in the report but Finland, the commercially attractive audience of 15-55-year-olds now prefers streaming over linear TV. And more than a quarter of the US and UK population are now pure streamers and can thus only be reached on streaming platforms. This is a seismic shift affecting how media campaigns need to be planned.
“With these now embedded and dramatic changes to the TV landscape, advertisers need to consider their reach-building video media investments very carefully. Though linear TV remains a crucial channel for building reach, advertisers have the opportunity to extend their audience reach with CTV campaigns on top of their linear TV activity,” the study says.
● THE OPPORTUNITY FOR BROADCASTERS AND CONTENT PROVIDERS
While CTV holds great potential for advertisers, broadcasters have an equally exciting opportunity to profit from the valuable consumer attention they are delivering around their content. According to AudienceProject, “by proving the effectiveness of CTV as a channel to extend audience reach in a quality TV-like environment, broadcasters and CTV platforms can convince advertisers to spend their ad dollars with them and thus help their clients reach desirable consumer groups who are opting out of linear TV”.
