Gleaning data from Nielsen’s evolving Total Content Ratings, CBS touts strong time-shifted viewing from traditional TV platforms for the recently completed 2016-17 season.
Traditional TV time-shifted viewing is finally seeing some declines among younger TV viewers. Nielsen says DVR/time-shifted viewing time is now dropping for viewers 18-34 and 12-17-year-old viewers for the five-month period from October 2014 through February 2015 versus the same period a year ago.
Why People Really Time-Shift Shows
More people are time-shifting TV shows than ever before. But while many of them do skip the ads, it’s become more and more clear that is not the primary reason people use DVRs. Instead, it’s all about controlling their own schedules.
Glee leads the way, doubling its live-plus-same-day rating with seven-day DVR viewership, the first broadcast show to do so. Other top gainers: Grimm and Revenge.
Right now the broadcast networks are carefully preparing their fall schedules, mulling over which show will perform best in what timeslot. But for many TV viewers such considerations are becoming passé. An increasing number are setting their own TV schedules. Regina A. Corso, SVP at Harris Poll, talks about what self-scheduled viewing means for media buyers, why product placement is bound to increase, and why Baby Boomers are poised to embrace time-shifting.
Many top-rated network TV shows witnessed a greater percentage of their viewers time-shifting their programs, such as Glee and Grey’s Anatomy. A few top-rated network shows, like Modern Family, grew in both categories: higher total ratings after seven days and a higher percentage of time-shifting viewers.
Exclusives
Connected TVs are about to jumpstart the nascent IPTV and VOD sectors, perhaps even with radical new online services. But some of the UK industry’s key figures, at Tuesday’s Westminster Media Forum, lined up to give a conservative prediction — that the biggest opportunity is merely time shifting.
