CTV

Key Takeaways

• The rapidly changing landscape: 70% of U.S households have at least one connected TV; Roku and Amazon are still among the top OEMs; 94% of viewing on linear is still live or same day.
• Growth is due to the increase in streaming especially FAST which are having double digit growth. But how will the landscape unfold as, and if, the economy downturns. TUBI expects one in three streamers to reduce their channels.
• There has been a rapid decline in pay subscriptions over the last 5 years from 66% to 43% with a concomitant rise in cord cutters. Cord-nevers have leveled off at 13% having risen to 20% in 2020.
• COVID caused a rapid bump in viewing of TV and video, it retreated during 2021. But now we are seeing a renewed growth in the total amount of television and video. While there is a slow erosion, linear is still alive and well.
• One important story is the growth overall of exposure to video through different channels such as gaming and social. But it is content as well as mobile availability that is driving growth. Nearly 50% of linear content consumed is news, sports and movies. However, movies have lost a 5% share over the last 5 years, no doubt the loss coming from the growth of SVOD.
• Sports occupies a unique place in content. It accounts for more than half of all social media posts, and sports fans index at 124 for pay tv subscriptions.

Key Takeaways

• The results showed that 15-20% of the time, when an ad is playing on such an external device, the TV is off. Every publisher and device combination were affected.
• This doesn’t happen with most Smart TVs, although there is one that goes into a low power mode (Fisher wouldn’t say which).
• The initial study did not look at input switching, such as when someone switches to a gaming console or cable box. But that is part of phase two, along with how time of day affects this phenomenon (i.e., people falling asleep in front of the TV) and expanded data sets to look at linear TV consumption.
• GroupM is now testing what combinations of devices and cables make the problem better or worse and why. Older HDMI cables and having a sound bar can interrupt the power on/off signal, they found. Pucks and sticks, and other devices hidden behind TVs, also have a higher occurrence of continuous play.
• Prompts that ask, “Are you still watching?” help avoid this. Some platforms wait four hours to ask, which is too long, but with short-form episodic viewing, asking too often can annoy viewers.

Key Takeaways

• Even moderate category primes can push through effects, despite modest impact, in both linear and CTV. Category priming in streaming with limited ads impacted middle and lower funnel metrics, with 31% of viewers noticing a connection between the ad and the program.
• Although viewers agreed that low intensity “unsuitable” content was most acceptable for advertisers, there were no adverse effects as intensity levels increased—all levels were deemed suitable for advertisers, with no significant differences in brand recall or purchase intent.
• More research is required to understand what is unsuitable for brands. The current guidelines are based on what is thought to be unsuitable—not social science.