| Reaching Audience in 2024
Executive Summary
By Charlotte Dulany, Event Content Manager, Cynopsis
Rounding out 2023, industry experts connected across the screen to examine the targeting tools necessary to optimize ad strategy. Conversations oscillated between what worked this year, and forecasts for future trends. Cynopsis framed the question: What audience-based buying options are TV networks and streamers offering buyers to push lower-funnel results? The speakers, from companies including Comscore, Hallmark Media, Reddit, A+E Networks and more, weighed in.
Sponsored by Comscore.
“What is the value of advertising to people who are subscribing to their services and watching?” That’s how Mark Loughney of Hub Entertainment Research kicked off the afternoon conference, addressing topics such as the discovery chain and the “compound interest” of CTV. According to recent data, viewers this year used less TV sources than they did in 2022 – an average of 6.4 compared to last year’s 7.4. This is partly due to bundling, which, as Loughney said, has created simplicity, with a value that people today are willing to pay for.
As we know, viewers are fickle. Forty-one percent of people said they signed up for a service in order to watch a specific show, according to a Hub study, and 58% of people under the age of 25 have canceled a subscription within the first six months. Churn, more than acquisition, has become the focus for providers as the “revolving door” of subscriptions is becoming the norm.
With so many platforms, and an imperfect understanding of how they’re different from one another, exclusive content has the potential to be a deciding factor for subscribers. Familiar content can keep viewers engaged, even across platforms.
With the ability to present multiple services at once, the number of people who own Smart TVs has increased 18% since 2020, reaching a total of 77% of people in Q3 2023, and more owners are using the internal operating systems and apps to stream, according to Hub Entertainment Research. Today, more viewers say Smart TV apps are their TV “home base” than any other point of access. “You rarely see movement like this that happens so quickly in behavior,” Loughney noted. “It’ll be a kind of no-brainer prediction to say that in 2024, I think we’re going to see these Smart TV apps truly dominating as the home base in television.”
“In the early days of television, it was a free service, you really just needed a device that could give you content,” said James Muldrow, Comscore’s VP of product management, in a session sponsored by Comscore. “We’ve really come full circle in that, in the sense of FAST channels. That’s really where we’re arriving. The economics of today really encourage consumers, particularly in the US, to want to have more advertising-supported content, as opposed to the subscription-supported content that they may have paid for in the past.”
Roku Head of Data and Measurement Product Partnerships Ziggy Zografakis agreed, saying, “Being in this industry, we take a bit for granted sort of the evolution of content consumption and how that’s been changing.” This year, linear TV fell to under 50% of total TV viewing for the first time, and 38% of consumption was via streaming on TV. Zografakis predicted, “[We think that] that’s going to continue to shift, and we’re going to see the consumption rise dramatically from then and from linear TV to continue to fall at pace.”
It’s up to streamers to leverage the content in their catalog to engage viewers. “This quest for connection I think is the driving force behind Barbenheimer, it’s the reason people shelled out thousands of dollars to go see Taylor Swift [and] Beyonce,” said Julia Goorin of Vox Media. A bifocal lens to create content, one that celebrates niche, individual passion points, but also fosters community, connection and conversation, could be the solution. “I anticipate this will only grow in 2024 as social media continues to evolve, as algorithms evolve, and I’m excited to see what sort of media moments, big ones and small ones, ultimately bring people together.”
In the next panel, Pam Zucker of the IAB asked panelists what their predictions are for the next big thing in 2024.
“The next big thing comes from the distribution world,” answered Casey Gould of Hallmark Media. “And we got a glimpse of it in September, when Disney and Charter cut their new agreement that included streaming services as part of the ‘traditional bundle.’ So as more MVPD and programmer deals are up for renewal, I think it will be fascinating to see how those deals play out. My question is, will streaming and traditional linear merge into one thing… And in two years’ time, will we look back and say that we went on a wild five-year journey and ended up sort of back where we started.”
Looking ahead to next year, panelists assessed what it means to invite innovation into the picture. “A targeted approach requires a change in mindset, for sure, and this industry has transacted in the same way for decades. So, change doesn’t come easy,” said Gould.
Roseann Montenes of A+E Networks said, “There is no more differentiation between linear and digital buying, it’s all just following the consumer cross-screen…I think that we have to get our vendors that we’re all partnering with to a place where they’re in the same mindset as we are, as content is content, no matter where it’s consumed.”
Cynopsis VP and Group Publisher Robbie Caploe wrapped up the virtual conference with a discussion with Howard Homonoff, senior advisor of the media and entertainment industry at Grant Thornton. Homonoff made the argument that streaming ultimately should look more like cable in terms of a rebundle. “I think that there is this rationalization going on that we’re going to see continue and accelerate in the streaming space,” said Homonoff. “And I think that the world of FAST channels is obviously super interesting, and I don’t think this necessarily means that the rising tide lifts all boats.”
Here’s a positive note to end on from Homonoff: “I think as streaming is growing, as FAST channels become more and more important, it doesn’t mean linear has no place in the future world.” |
