A new Nielsen study says that as VOD continues to take an increasing slice of the TV pie, marketers can take advantage of viewers’ growing taste for this menu-driven content. The study reports
that distributing popular entertainment programs as on-demand choices can have a positive impact on ratings contribution, and possibly even recapture certain demographic groups that were trending in
other directions.
The VOD phenomenon, bolstered by subscription VOD services such as Netflix, which has a 29% penetration rate in U.S. TV homes, is helping consumers to embrace accessing
content through a selection menu as opposed to simply channel surfing.
At least some of the credit for this viewing trend should be attributed to the cable operators and their content deals,
which have led to increasingly stocked VOD libraries, says the report.
Netflix
Home Video Consumption (Percentage of average minutes per person per day, by viewing source in homes with internet access; September 2013) |
Viewing Source Video | Netflix Homes | Non-Netflix Homes |
Live TV | 69.1% | 80.5% |
DVD | 4.1 | 2.4 |
DVR | 10.4 | 9.2 |
Video game console | 8.3 | 2.6 |
Other | 5.8 | 4.7 |
Source: Nielsen NPower, December 2013 |
While traditional set-top-box VOD has become an increasingly important option for content owners, cable companies and consumers, it’s also an opportunity for marketers. Taking
recently telecast programs and making them available via an on-demand menu with all national ads included (Recently Telecast VOD) could appeal to advertisers. On-demand users actually watch longer and
tend to watch more of the commercials shown with their programs. While research is still ongoing, a 30-minute program that was studied found that on-demand users watched an average of 28 minutes,
compared with digital video recorder (DVR) users’ 23 minutes and live viewers’ 20 minutes.
On-demand viewers indexed highest on commercial viewing. Despite initial predictions that
disabling fast-forwarding could dissuade viewers from VOD, consumers opt for premium, primetime content when they want it, in exchange for commercial viewing, says the report.
The rise of VOD
could affect DVR usage, which has seen steady gains in time spent over the last half-decade. For the programs analyzed, 55% of non-live commercial viewing came from VOD for persons 18-24 when compared
to DVR contribution. As expanded libraries of cloud-based VOD, coupled with improved interfaces continue to gain industry momentum, this could be a technological harbinger that on-demand is in prime
position to change viewers’ consumption habits.
Video on Demand Total
Viewing vs. Non-live Viewing (For A New Action Show Among People 18-24 Years Old) |
VOD Viewing | Total Program | Commercial Minutes |
Percent of Total viewing | 20% | 25% |
Percent of Non-live viewing | 38% | 55% |
Source: Nielsen NPower,
December 2013 |
For more
information from Nielsen, please visit here.