Trying to get your finger on the pulse of video, much less to define it, is an ongoing exercise. Enter Involved Media, a global full-service indie media agency, and their Connected Audience Spring 2024 Report: CTV. The study, fielded earlier this year, examines the state of streaming. Tess Erickson, Director, Strategy and Research with Involved Media, explained that this study, the first for the agency, is slated to become a regular series across an expanded geography. "We determined that we needed to have our own proprietary, consistent wave over wave study, that we can design and analyze in-house and to get a better sense of exactly the questions we want to ask," she noted.
The study revealed that SVOD subscription streaming within the ad universe has grown significantly in the past year as compared to findings from similar studies. "About a year prior, we had just over half of our sample reachable by SVOD ads. That number in our most recent survey was 66%. So, there has been a really big explosion in this," she shared. While some of this can be explained by the timing of the study in January when football is in high gear, there were also, according to Erickson, additional new ad-supported tiers added in the last year or two with more live events within the streaming universe.
"People who selected the premium tier were really hard to reach," she noted, "But the increase in live events, like we see with Amazon, allows for reach to those premium viewers who are willing to pay extra to avoid some ads. Those are now people that will be reachable as long as they're watching those live events."
For Erickson, the data shows that the definition of primetime is shifting, arguably because streaming is more of an on-demand viewing activity. For her, "when primetime starts for people is very personal. They start their prime time viewing when they can pay attention. They watch on their own start time and they're using that time to watch the content they're most excited about."
The study also reinforced that Netflix is the dominant streaming platform, commanding up to 90% of those viewers who have multiple streaming platform options. Why? One possible reason is the choice of programming for which Netflix has heavily invested. Another, according to Erickson, is that Netflix was a first mover. "Everyone's heard of Netflix," she posited, "If you're going to have a streaming service, you're going to have Netflix." In addition, Netflix is known for a range of programming genres, thus appealing to more potential viewers. "What we see is 60% of Netflix viewers associate the platform with three or more genres. By comparison, for Prime Video, Disney+, Peacock and Max, the majority of viewers associate them with two or fewer genres." Essentially, "Netflix has done a great job of not just being there. They've done a great job of expanding the content they have so that they can be a little bit of everything to everyone. In the same way the TV used to be."
Another finding of interest is the decline in FAST network viewers. According to the study findings, about half of the sample said that they watched a FAST network in the last month - down from about 60% in previous studies. Again, this might be because the study was polled in January when there were very competitive live events being streamed. However, for Erickson, this portends a trend. "It's hard for me to see where the FAST audience has room to grow. It's hard to create a really strong connection for FAST services because they don't subscribe and don't pay. You don't feel guilty for only using it once a month."
But Erickson pointed out, this could all see a shift in the coming months. "Between the unique growth of Freevee, the rebranding of Vudu as Fandango at Home, and the acquisition of Vizio (and thus Vizio WatchFree) by Walmart, this category could be headed for the shakeup it seems to be in need of," added Erickson.
Involved is planning the next wave of the CTV study in the third quarter, when they intend to incorporate YouTube premium, all forms of audio, and short-form video. "We're always looking to improve the study. It's an interesting field because the way people are engaging with media has become so different from person to person that we are constantly trying to figure out the best way to ask questions that everybody will be able to recognize themselves in the question," she stated. Clarity is vital. "The way people engage with media becomes so distinct from each other."
Finally, while Involved has fielded studies in Canada and the U.S., they plan to expand the study into Australia enabling all of Involved Media's three major markets available to their clients. From there it will be possible to compare markets internationally.
For a copy of the full report and an on-demand video presenting its findings, visit: https://involvedmedia.com/involved-connected-audiences-spring-2024-report-ctv/.
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