7 minute read
Being There
Three years ago this month, the world shut down as Covid took hold of our lives and livelihoods. In-person events were shut down and we were all advised to shelter at home and avoid contact with each other.
A number of studies have since shown the toll this has taken on not only our society but, in particular, our work lives. In 2020, most of us had not been familiar with the acronym “WFH” but now it’s part of our lexicon. As is the nature of our business, many of our fellow associates didn’t have the luxury of remote work, but the tools needed to produce live content remotely were in place and have since been enhanced to help us cope with the new production normal.
Those same studies have also shown us that the need for in-person events for education and networking has never been more vital and that’s why events such as next month’s NAB Show have taken on added importance. In addition to marking an important centennial milestone, the gathering in Las Vegas will serve as a reminder to where we’ve been and where we as an industry are going.
Many of the topics of discussion will reflect the ongoing efforts to harness the power of the cloud and AI to improve the creative process as well as the management and distribution of content. Broadcasters will also discuss the transition to NextGen TV, in particular, pointing to the need for a hard deadline to ending 1.0, giving local stations the flexibility and capacity to offer the enhanced capabilities of the next generation format.
After the tentativeness of 2022, where in-person events slowly returned to life, attendance at industry trade shows in 2023 have already greatly increased, with attendee numbers returning to near-pre-pandemic levels. Hundreds of Zoom calls over the past 72 months have proven that there’s no substitute for in-person events. Our industry is ready to return in full force to Las Vegas—will you be there?
Speaking of milestones, I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate an industry colleague and friend who has been an important part of TV Tech for many years. Bill Hayes, the long-time director of engineering for Iowa PBS recently announced his retirement. Anyone who has been a part of this industry for any period of time has probably met Bill, who is a past president of IEEE-BTS, SMPTE governor, current partnership board member of the IBC and recipient of Future’s 2021 Tech Leadership Award.
Bill is also a long-time contributor to TV Tech as well as our summits and since he now has plans to consult on NextGen TV we look forward to continuing to provide him a platform to share the insight he’s gained during his 50-year career as a broadcaster.
Congratulations, Bill!
Tom Butts Content Director tom.butts@futurenet.com
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Time Spent Streaming Expected to Exceed Linear TV Viewing in 2023
In what researchers are calling an inflection point in the time Americans spend viewing video, a new forecast from Insider Intelligence is predicting that for the first time in 2023, U.S. adults will spend more time watching digital video than traditional linear TV, according to the latest time spent forecast from Insider Intelligence.
In 2022, digital video time among U.S. adults nearly caught up to TV time: U.S. adults spent an average of 3 hours and 2 minutes per day watching digital video and 3 hours and 7 minutes watching linear TV. Except for a slight uptick in 2020, daily TV time has declined every year since 2013, and it will continue to drop through 2024, the researchers said.
Conversely, digital video time saw double-digit growth every year between 2011 and 2021. Growth slowed to single digits in 2022 but will remain positive through 2024, Insider Intelligence is predicting.
This year, Insider Intelligence is forecasting that U.S. adults’ daily TV time will drop to 2 hours and 55 minutes, while digital video time will climb to 3 hours and 11 minutes. Linear TV will now represent 47.7% of total time spent with TV and digital video per day (the first time it’s dropped below
50%), while digital video will make up 52.3%.
The researchers noted that TikTok is driving social video consumption and they are predicting that TikTok's total viewing time will surpass Facebook in 2024
The researchers have defined traditional linear TV as any type of video content delivered via cable, satellite, telecom, or overthe-air antenna; digital video is video viewed via over-the-top or connected streaming services, as well as video viewed on social media, including YouTube.
“This milestone is driven by people spending more and more time watching video on their biggest and smallest screens, whether it’s an immersive drama on a connected TV or a viral clip on a smartphone,” said Paul Verna, principal analyst and head of the digital advertising and media desk at Insider Intelligence. “The growth of digital video is especially impressive when you consider that, as recently as four years ago, it accounted for roughly half of TV time. And bear in mind that our time spent forecasts are for adults only. Given teens’ preferences for social and streaming video over TV, we can expect these trends to continue to shift in favor of digital.”
George Winslow
TVB: Netflix With Ads Has Extremely Limited Reach
The Television Bureau of Advertising has issued new research on the audiences advertisers might reach via Netflix’s “Basic with Ads” tier showing the ad-supported streaming tier has extremely limited reach compared to the audiences of local TV.
“Netflix’s reported audience numbers for its ad-supported tier, ‘Basic with Ads,’ are an estimated 600,000 ‘monthly active users.’ Importantly, this metric refers to subscribers, not viewers and Netflix ad-supported users pale in comparison to local linear TV viewing audiences,” said Steve Lanzano, TVB President and CEO.
“The comparison is extremely meaningful for the advertising community and brands. On a typical evening in November (11/9/22) in the New York DMA alone, Nielsen reports that 1.6 million adults 18+ were reached by local broadcast TV stations' early news between 5PM and 6:30PM," Lanzano continued. "Early news reach in the New York market was nearly triple the number of Netflix’s reported universe for its ad-supported tier.”
Nielsen currently does not break out streaming video on demand (SVOD) audiences into ad subscribers and ad-free subscribers, the TVB researchers noted. Only the total universe is reported. To estimate Netflix’s ad audiences, TVB applied the total Netflix rating to the reported Netflix ad subscriber base of 600,000.
The TVB estimates reveal that on the same night in November (11/9/22), Netflix’s top three programs, “The Crown”, “Love is Blind” and “Enola Holmes 2” delivered 5,040, 4,440 and 1,860 adult 18+ ad viewers, respectively.
Those are tiny numbers compared to local broadcasts, the TVB stressed. New York evening news adults 18+ impressions for the same day and time slot included: WABC (915,191), WCBS (462,339), WNBC (282,280), WNYW (103,380) and WPIX (37,611)..
George Winslow
TVB says shows like Netflix's "The Crown" register tiny numbers when compared to local broadcasts.
Sling Launches Freestream FAST Channel
Sling TV has jumped into the free ad-supported streaming business in a major way with the launch of Sling Freestream, a advertising-supported streaming television service (FAST) that provides viewers with 210+ free channels and 41,000+ on-demand titles.
Unveiled on Feb. 9—Sling’s eighth birthday and “National Cut the Cord Day”—Freestream is available through the Sling app on all Roku devices, and is rolling out across LG, Samsung and Vizio devices. Freestream will roll out across all Sling-compatible devices throughout the coming months.
While the service marks a major strategic shift towards FAST services, the launch is also notable because Dish says the Sling Freestream platform “pioneers flexibility between paid and FAST TV” by allowing viewers to upgrade to paid services, including Sling’s pay TV packages and 50 standalone subscription channels, easily from Sling Freestream.
Sling is billing the service as the first to enable “One-Click” upgrades to premium pay TV within a FAST service.
Sling Freestream delivers more than 210 channels and 41,000 on-demand titles for free. In addition Freestream uniquely offers international programming in nine languages, such as AajTak International, DesiPlay, Noticias Univision 24/7, ARY News, France24, beIN SPORTS XTRA, SonyKal, TVP World, Al Jazeera English and Al Arabiya. George
Winslow
