Only 6% of TV Viewers Discover New Shows Via Social Media

For the connected generation and those living in the digital age, quality content is king. New research focusing on television-viewing trends shows that traditional TV-marketing habits — on-air trailers and channel surfing — are helping viewers discover new shows more so than social media and websites. The survey, conducted by independent analyst Ovum and commissioned by production technology company Avid, tapped more than 3,000 consumers — in the U.S., the UK, Brazil and Germany — to evaluate these trends in the 21st century's multi-screen environment.

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The study found three main things, says W. Sean Ford, Avid's vice president of worldwide marketing and CMO: A glut of broadcasters and media organizations are leaving money on the table (37% of respondents said they would pay for archived episodes of their favorite shows); 65% said image and audio quality was a key driver of their enjoyment; and there's been an uncontested rise in multi-platform viewing. Here's an infographic that illustrates some of the research's findings:

Some 39% of respondents said they discovered new shows through trailers shown on TV (with only 6% discovering shows via social media); 14 percent of consumers are testing new shows online, on tablets and smartphones; and 30% of consumers who test new shows through online services return to appointment-based viewing once they become fans.

Additionally, viewers are using social media as a "digital water cooler." During the Olympics, for example, 63% of viewers used PCs, tablets or smartphones to find related information.

"In the same way families used to gather around their favorite television shows and do appointment viewing as a group, we're finding that people are actually watching sporting events or television shows and the like, and then interacting with one another using social to get more information," Ford explains.

The Ovum research also argues that the media organization poised to succeed will be the ones capable of implementing an effective strategy that drives monetization, while incorporating a collaborative workflow to speed up the development of high-quality content. An earlier Avid and Ovum survey of media executives, "Making Media Personal," found that 33% of existing content could be monetized to take advantage of such opportunities; however, most archived content is inaccessible.

Ford says the environment the industry is operating in is one that is experiencing significant digitization. There are more assets than ever, he says, noting that technology solutions for handling and managing the assets are inadequate or are missing critical capabilities. To combat leaving money on the table, Ford says organizations could monetize their assets by finding an effective way to pull out the media they have, repurpose it and re-use it.

"What we've found is that the core to being able to monetize media that's been archived or assets that one might have, is all around a meta-data strategy," Ford says.

Potential success, he says, is rooted in the ability to create a consistent taxonomy to tag and mark all parts of rich media, to be able to quickly and easily recall it so it's readily available. The trouble, though, is that there's no uniform or consistent industry strategy that exists. Anyone who creates rich content and has an interest in monetizing it and rebroadcasting it, Ford says, is putting together their own version of a meta-data strategy. But from broadcaster to broadcaster, there's no set path or uniform strategy to successfully churn old content into new money.

Furthermore, the "Making Media Personal" joint study found that broadcast and studio executives expect a rapid transition of the multi-screen web delivery model. Of those that responded, 71.5% said that more than 11% of average audience viewing time will be delivered by web services by 2017. More than one-quarter of all respondents predict that more than 30% of audience viewing time will be delivered by web services in 2017.

This latest study was conducted to give broadcasters and advertisers insights into how to tap into their ever transitioning mobile and multi-platform audiences.

For additional summary of Avid and Ovum's findings, go here; to download the full report, go here.

Image: Flickr, Jason A. Howie; Infographic: Avid