Much has been said about the death of TV but here at BBM Analytics we are noticing the opposite is true.
Last year saw a significant increase in TV viewing levels obviously boosted by the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. This viewing increase continued into the Fall season with Canadians watching almost an extra hour of TV per week compared to the previous year.[1]
PVRs were first touted as the end for the 30” spot when viewers were given the ability to skip ads. What we are seeing is firstly that PVR household penetration in Canada is nowhere near as high as the US, currently around 23% according to BBM Canada[2]. Secondly, live viewing still prevails. Out of the 4 hours per day that Canadians view on average only 10 minutes is playback viewing and about a quarter of this should be attributed to the good old video recorder. What we are seeing is significant differences in the amount of playback viewing to different shows where playback can account for up to 40% of the total viewing. This can of course be easily analysed in our InfoSys+ software. But how much of a worry should this be for advertisers? Studies have shown significant ad recall for spots viewed in fast forward mode. There is also an argument that as the PVR moves away from the early adopters and becomes more of a mainstream product we could see this playback viewing actually decrease.
Canadians value the viewing experience with 53% of households owning a HDTV. (Admittedly only 23% of households actually have a HD set top box). This viewing experience will continue to be enhanced with the growth of 3DTV. We should expect the take up of 3DTV to increase as the available content (both TV and gaming) expands and the price of both the set and the funky glasses drops.
Obviously the current hot topic is internet connectable TV. Sears recently announced that 85% of the TVs carried in its stores this year would have this capability. The proliferation of set top boxes that offer this service not to mention the launch of Netflix in Canada with its ability to stream content through video consoles have also been stated as the death of the linear schedule. However according to Deloitte Touch in their recent Canadian TMT Predictions this shouldn’t really be a concern – not just because of the extra cost involved but mainly due to a lack of need as, for most people, television remains a passive experience.
And we haven’t even stumbled down the slippery path of online video. Numerous studies have highlighted the Canadian love for this medium. A recent survey from Ipsos Reid showed that 80% of Canadians watch some online content with 41% of them watching online video more than once a week. According to ComScore’s 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review Canadians, on average, watched some 267 videos in Q4 which amounts to over 20 hours per month.
Finally no blog post is complete without a passing mention to social media. It too is playing its part in support of the linear TV schedule. Services such as Facebook and Twitter can increase the desire to watch TV as it is happening – you don’t want to be left out of the conversation or indeed have the outcome spoilt by seeing a well meaning post. The broadcasters themselves are now actively using social media to drive buzz for their shows and are seeing very positive results. And of course there’s an app for that. Entertainment check-in applications are taking off – GetGlue recently stated that it achieved 16m checkins across facebook & Twitter on Oscars night.
So to quote Deolitte Touche:
The future of TV is TV: PVRs, Internet,TV and other media do not threaten, replace or even compete with traditional TV – they complement it.
