NBCUniversal's Mark Marshall on the Business of Viewership

One Audience Trends CrossPlatform Consumption ReportNBCUniversal recently released their first One Audience Trends CrossPlatform Consumption Report Marshall confirmed what he and his team have seen in viewing data quotConsumers are really their own programmers at this pointquot he said quotYou can look at the study and see that people are consuming on their own time in their own manners in the way they want to consumequotBut the surprise for Marshall was quotas much as we talk about the disaggregation of how people are consuming content the thing that brings them all together is typically the television setquot He noted that quotNinetyseven percent of consumption is on a television set With the huge growth we had in streaming over the past few years that streaming has driven people back to the set just like they were years and years agoquotViewership TrendsThe migration back to the set is an important takeaway But we need to go deeper to really understand how this can impact both networks and marketers The report he explained quotfor the first time broke out the programming on digital as well as linear and put it all together It showed what was on that night the consumption that happened on linear and what was the consumption that happened on digitalquotWhat it showed for a program like This Is Us for example is that it is a top show on the night it airs on linear as well as a top show across the entire week when all of the other platforms are added quotThe idea of looking at linear television as a point in time is something we want people to get away fromquot he stated Happily quotmost marketers have evolved but maybe not as quickly as the viewership has transformed overallquot he averredWhat39s notable is that this consumption pattern has changed the way programmers gauge success quotIt39s funnyquot Marshall musedamp160quotWe used to sit and wait for the overnights and that was a determining factor if a show was a success from the night before Now we really start to evaluate shows after 35 days That is really the full picturequot Of course the viewing pattern depends on the type of show The Voice as a contest may have higher viewership within a few days of its original airing while This Is Us can be viewed over a longer timelineThe Impact on SalesAll of this begs the question if we are looking at a month of combined linear digital and streaming to confirm viewership how does that impact sales flights Marshall explained that when NBCU brought CFlight the industry39s first crossplatform unified advertising metric to market quotWe did two things We wanted to unite and get a consistent vision of where impressions were running and start to flight their schedules differentlyquot Pricing he stated quotis determined by the marketplace supply and demandquot but quotlet39s stop looking at linear and digital as two distinct markets Let39s look at it as one holistic market as one holistic supply and demand view of all of it in order to give marketers the most comprehensive package and price that package to work for them instead of having two separate negotiations as was done in the pastquotThe Impact on SchedulingWhen the viewer is in charge and can essentially view on demand scheduling strategy time period day of week lead in and lead outamp160may no longer factor But Marshall disagrees quotScheduling does matterquot he asserted quotWhat you see is appointment television at the front end of the week and as you get to the back half of the week people are catching up digitally When we think of scheduling we no longer think of scheduling as just a specific flow from show to show We think about it from medium to mediumquot The report notes that consumption has risen 23 in the last decade as we get towards the end of the weekIs it possible that the pandemic has been accelerating these trends quotIt39s possiblequot Marshall saidamp160quotWe saw growth in our coviewing numbers even in news So the idea that people are home more and people are sitting down and watching television more often absolutely has shown changes in viewer habits over this timequotMetrics and MeasurementMetrics for Marshall is personal quotI just turned 50 this yearquot he said quotAt 50 I no longer count in 1849 I am in the market right now to buy a car The idea that I no longer count to a car maker makes no sense What an automaker really wants is to reachamp160a consumer who is in market Our metrics need to keep up with where we are at amp160a buying audience instead of a demographic audience to drive salesquotWith metrics quotdelivery is where it39s at now where impressions are the common measurement tool But the longterm goal is to get us to transact in different ways such as our recently announced Total Investment Impact We can actually talk to the auto industry and show an auto manufacturer what percentage of sales NBCU was responsible for and start to build towards guaranteeing on actual sales as opposed to impressionsquot he statedquotThis is an issue that we have to take on as an industry to get us to a common metricquot Marshall continued quotLet39s stop treating impressions the same Let39s start looking at what the real value and impact of an impression is and not pretend that a twosecondswiththesoundoff impression is the same as a thirtysecond spot seen in its entirety Those can39t be valued the samequotThe FutureLooking ahead Marshall predicts the full confluence of consumption quotWe will continue to see the evolution to digital but at some point you are not going to see the term 39digital39 being usedquot he said quotIt39s going to be the video consumed and total consumptionquot And for advertisers quotIt39s hard to evolve and make distinct change unless you take a risk and throw away some of the legacy What is more aligned with future consumer and viewing habits instead of the past trends looking at things on a oneplatform basis on an audience level and letting consumer habits determine where your ads are going to runquotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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NBCUniversal's Mark Marshall on the Business of Viewership

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