TV Award Shows Record Big Viewer Declines In Streaming, Apps
- by Wayne Friedman , September 16, 2021
Although major linear TV award shows have taken massive hits in viewership over the years, it doesn’t stop there. Time spent with awards shows on streaming apps has also declined.
The connected advertising sales/measurement division LG Electronics holds a majority investment in, reported a 12% decline in viewing for award shows on streaming platforms in 2021, versus a year ago, according to an LG Ads report.
This comes from analysis based on an LG Ad footprint of 20 million households, projected to the U.S. population.
Looking at the bigger legacy TV picture, virtually no award show was immune from the decline on any respective TV networks -- especially the three major event shows: ABC’s “The Academy Awards Show” declined 43% in live-only viewing to 18.5 million in 2021 versus a year ago, while NBC’s “The Golden Globes” fell 55% to 18.4 million and CBS’ “The Grammy Awards” sank 34% to 16.6 million.
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LG says this resulted in “heavy” TV viewers becoming a larger share of overall viewing. For the Oscars broadcast, heavy viewers grew to a 65% share, from 59%, with medium and light viewers sinking to 30%, from a 33% share, and 5% from 8%, respectively.
“Grammy” heavy viewers came in at 66%, up from 59%, while medium viewers were at 30%, down from 34%, and light viewers came in at 4%, down from 7%. Heavy "Golden Globes" viewers came in at 63%, up from 58%, and medium viewers came in at 30%, down from 35%. Light Grammy viewers had a slight uptick to 8% from 7%.
Did LG measure the residents of its household panel or merely that their devices were tuned in? If it's the latter, the problem is that heavy usage households are mainly younger--- heads under age 50---- and more affluent homes as these contain more residents as well as more devices---hence, as households, they tune in more frequently But, in reality, many of the adults living in such homes are not, themselves, heavy viewers---indeed, a fair share may be lighter than the norm viewers.