Commentary

Building Comfort TV Brands In A Time Of Need

Your “comfort” TV/media brandis here during a time of crisis. Name yours: CNN? Disney+? Hallmark? ABC? Facebook? Twitch?

Throughout the last several weeks, TV Watch has heard about shut-in consumers and their media behaviors. An unscientific sense of brand associations sound like this, according a few radio/TV at-home consumer interviews:

“We are spending a lot of time indoors, watching lots of Netflix.”

Surely, those being interviewed might be watching lot of other streaming and legacy TV stuff -- Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Now, CBS All Access, etc

Why the shout-out to Netflix? Maybe it’s the new generic term for in-home TV viewing -- like Scotch tape or Xerox was a generation ago.

Looking deeper, data shows consumers are watching lots of different content, including, local news TV telecasts, as well as national TV news channels.

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In that light, consider this: For the last several years, CNN has been generally behind Fox News and MSNBC. Recently, CNN has seen big increases in overall prime-time viewing -- rising 141% to a Nielsen-measured 2.2 million from March 30-April 5, versus its March 2019 average.

Is that a comfort TV brand now?

Not to be left out, Fox News Channel and others TV news networks continue to see big gains. Fox News is up 60% in prime time for the most recent week, versus its March 2019 average results.

Walt Disney isn’t left out of this mix, either. In fact, it is adding to its efforts with a new website platforms for family and kids -- one called Disney Magic Moments, a new kid-friendly website.

Comfort-food and comfort TV brands are in vogue during the pandemic.

After Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC as the top three TV cable networks, entertainment channels -- TLC, Food Network, HGTV, History and Hallmark -- closely follow. That’s a lot of comfort TV brands backing up all straight-ahead news and news opinion platforms.

Question is: Are these networks finding any big advertising boosts?

Probably not right now, as TV Watch keeps hearing about more unsold TV inventory and shifting marketers’ media schedules.

But perhaps all this is building the foundation for creating more brand equity in better times, as well as when we face any future health/natural disaster periods.

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