MVPD Subscribers Increasingly Using TV Everywhere, Say NAB Show Panelists
LAS VEGAS -- Pay-TV subscribers on the go and on mobile and other devices increasingly use TV Everywhere to stream live and VOD content, and usage may further rise, according to NAB Show panelists and a later interview with the head of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing. New CTAM and Adobe research (see here and here) discussed by another panel Monday (see 1704240062) illustrates the trends. Further refinements to TV Everywhere are likely, making it easier to use, after some earlier issues, cable and programmer representatives said on the later panel.
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Making TVE "more robust" means improving "ease of use, the convenience factor," said CTAM CEO Vicki Lins in an interview after she moderated a panel on how tech is changing pay-TV programmers' promotional tactics. "We do expect it to continue," she said of rising consumer usage of the technology. She noted the public doesn't necessarily call it TV Everywhere and wouldn't recognize the name, because the term encompasses many efforts. In January, 51 percent of adult MVPD subscribers reported viewing TV Everywhere content in the past month, CTAM reported Thursday, based on 3,513 adult respondents to Hub Entertainment Research who watched at least 5 hours of TV weekly and had broadband at home. Monday, Adobe said it found that in Q4, 21 percent of cable-TV households use TVE functionality, though that excluded some usage (see slide 14).
TVE initially was mainly used to watch live programming, but now it's used for many reasons, Lins told us. The association's new research is giving CTAM a "much more holistic view of what's going on in the TV Everywhere universe," finding for instance that Hispanics find particular value in TVE, she said. "The next step is this more nuanced research."
Making it easier to use TVE by "eliminating the barriers that come up with the entry process" is getting more people using the services, said Fox Networks Senior Vice President-Distribution Marketing Jamia Bigalow. Some complained it's hard to log in. "Clearly, the content is a huge driver there," she said of TVE enthusiasm. At 21st Century Fox, networks like FX are seeing increasing use by subscribers of TVE, Bigalow said. Ease of use is "really important" for consumers, she said. "Companies need to be more focused in developing consumer-centric apps that serve the content up in a meaningful way so that people are spending more time viewing and less time searching."
One challenge for programmers is that many viewers are multitasking while watching video, Lins and panelists agreed. Some 90 percent are doing other things while watching TV, with millennials doing four other things on average, Lins said research found. "Across all audiences, only one quarter of all other activities that are happening when you’re watching TV has to do" with what is being viewed, she said. "There is a huge distraction factor here."
At Revolt, the music cable network launched in 2013 from Sean Combs, its research finds that about a third of its audience is using Facebook or Snapchat while consuming its content, said Executive Vice President-Content Distribution, Talent and Marketing James Brown. "We understand that we have to be on all the various platforms, on the social side," he said. "As we’re developing our content, we make sure we have pieces that live on all of those platforms." Fox does the same. Bigalow spoke of a "multi-tactical long runway" used to launch shows that includes various platforms. Such efforts amid tech change are "complicated," she said. "But it’s the way of the world these days, and it’s what you’ve got to do to compete."