Where Did My Audience Go? - Steve Yanovsky

So much has been written lately about all the alternative places that viewers can go to watch video content, in addition to broadcast and cable television. So, it looks like networks need to play some defense, as well as offense.

With all the gift giving that took place a couple of months ago, now more people have game consoles, Blu-ray players and DVR's. These devices make it easy for viewers with broadband connections to feed content from the internet, including movies and their favorite shows, onto their television sets.

With this in mind, a concern for the management of media companies is that soon, more and more people will watch video content from all kinds of sources- Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon, Hulu(Plus), etc. These alternatives allow cable and satellite subscribers to reduce their monthly subscriptions, in hard times, and still watch what they enjoy.

SNL Kagan estimates that 16.5 million homes have a Web TV device. By 2014 they estimate that 46.3 million HH's will have at least one TV with a broadband connection.

Now that Netflix is able to stream in-season episodes of favorite TV shows, including next day streaming of Saturday Night Live, its importance continues to grow. Major movies that traditionally have been licensed to premium cable channels will flow instead from FilmDistrict to Netflix for streaming to its members beginning this year.

Google TV, even with its starts and fits, has gained some allies as it prepares to move forward. HBO announced last fall that it would offer HBO GO, its online video destination for HBO sub's, on Google TV. CNBC, will bring a real-time financial news and data application to the Google TV platform. One interesting issue to consider is whether this is just a sampling device for these programmers? Is this an acquisition or retention strategy for them?

This growth in technology, taking place at warp speed, has made the TV manufacturers relevant again and they seem to want to disrupt the TV programming world. They have the technology and the platform to give consumers what they want when they want it. "Consumers definitely don't care where their TV comes from, they just want their TV", according to MediaPost. "With this shift comes a new opportunity to define how video content is delivered, consumed and paid for".

Many of those who expect a surge in on-line video usage see this as a consumer reaction to the annual subscription rate increases that subscribers have been coping with. SNL Kagan estimates these rates have gone up 64% since 2000.

A study recently released by YuMe states that "online video consumption increased 66% over the past 12 months". 48% of respondents expect to continue to watch even more online video over the next 12 months. And, unless broadcast and cable networks think that this increase simply means viewers migrating to a different screen, 70% of respondents to the study watch programs that are five minutes in length, or less. They are watching webisodic programming, not there "favorite" shows, online.

With this dynamic growing every month, the audience disappearance will continue to become more acute. How do you address these problems as a programmer? You can make sure that you have done everything possible to identify your position and to establish your brand in the minds of your viewers. This way they will watch you no matter what screen they are using. You can also test the creation of webisodes for your programs and use them to complement your long form programming and provide heretofore unseen content, or it can be used as a sampling device for your long form programming.

Steve Yanovsky is a senior partner at Brand Strategies, LLC and can be reached at syanovsky@brandstrategiesllc.com.

Read all Steve’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media Mediations.

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