Viewers have fled primetime lineups for streaming outlets, with one notable exception: people over 60. In the most recent network television season, which ended in May, the median viewer was older than 60 for most entertainment shows, including Young Sheldon (“65+,” the highest range that Nielsen provides).
Nielsen and the networks it serves have long been at odds, like a student might be with a particularly tough college professor who always offers a B- but never an A. But lately, tensions have begun to boil over into the public sphere, raising anew the prospect that advertisers and media outlets may start using a broader range of measurement services as the benchmark for advertising and sponsorship sales.
Why Is TV Taking Ads From Streaming Rivals?
ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars is one of TV’s biggest annual events. And yet the Walt Disney-owned network allowed some of the show’s sponsors to suggest to viewers that traditional TV was not what they ought to be viewing. The Oscars aren’t the only place where TV has allowed new-tech video rivals to take roost. It’s a move tantamount to a homeowner letting termites come into a house and gnaw at its innards.
Nielsen says this summer and fall, TV networks will spend roughly the equivalent of $4.5 billion in TV promos — with the majority of that messaging coming from its own network airwaves. Just over 88% of broadcast TV networks marketing efforts — or $4 billion — comes from its running new season TV promos on its own network airwaves. Roughly 9.3% comes from cross-channel promotion via broadcast networks’ sister cable channels. That comes to around $300 million. In addition, 2.4% comes from pay-TV efforts on other networks — around $100 million.
“We want to give our audience the most accurate reports possible without crossing a line into offensive or unnecessarily graphic material,” said NBC News in a statement.
Television networks battled on Wednesday for interviews with the jurors and lawyers in the Casey Anthony case — while emphasizing that they would not pay for the interviews.
Exclusives
Patterns in search volume suggest traditional TV broadcasters are missing an opportunity to connect with viewers online. That’s according to a white paper from Google analyzing the behavior of viewers and the patterns in online use: before, during and after TV shows air.
