Commentary

New Era Of TV 'Tune-In' Promotion Emerging

by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, September 22, 2022

Americans’ loyalty to TV has never been stronger. More movies and shows are viewed on more devices by more people for more time than ever before. But the way Americans view their TV -- through what platforms, providers and devices -- is changing rapidly.

In the old days, if you wanted to drive viewership to your show, one of the keys was program promotion, running clips and teasers of the show or movie to inform viewers that it was coming, and where and when to watch it.

For decades, TV companies typically committed more than 20% of their on-air ad inventory to “tune-in” promotion, and collectively spent more than a $1 billion dollars per year promoting their shows with tune-in ads on competitive channels and platforms.

Since nothing sells TV like TV ads, tune-in promotion has always been one of the most predictable and successful forms of advertising, helping launch shows and build viewership episode-over-episode and season-over-season.

Much of that world has come tumbling down as TV networks began shifting their original content efforts into streaming platforms and focused first on building subscribers to their new services, prioritizing service sign-ups over program viewership.

But now that the world of streaming is quickly shifting from subscription-based and ad-free to ad-supported, the world of TV tune-in promotion is in for another big change. Below are the key drivers of this change:

Competing with everything ever made. As NBCU marketing legend John Miller used to say, TV shows are no longer competing with the few other shows in their same time slot, but now competing with every show and movie ever made. Winning attention means finding the right viewers for every show and reaching them with compelling promotions to drive viewership and build loyalty.

Solving the discovery problem. It’s impossible for viewers today to know everything available to watch that they might like. They want to be informed about what’s out there. So great tune-in promotions aren’t annoying ads to them. Promo spots are much-needed recommendations, many times entertaining and fun to watch in their own right.

Building new habits. Watching TV today is hard. Not only do we have a bunch of different remotes for our TVs and peripheral devices, but the apps for the services we watch may be on different devices -- and all of them have different programming guides and navigation interfaces. There's no easy button yet, but a great tune-in promotion in content viewers already watch can help them find shows they enjoy and make the TV navigation world easier by saving them from endless channel-changing across apps, devices and shows.

It’s a brave new era for TV program promotion. Are you ready for it?

streaming, tv

5 comments about "New Era Of TV 'Tune-In' Promotion Emerging".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 22, 2022 at 6:42 p.m.
Dave, many of the old on-air and cable tune-in promos which involved one channel promoting its shows on another channel were time trades---not paid spots. Sometimes this backfired. I recall long ago, the Fox News Channel---at the time just beginning to compete for viewers---having such a deal with CNN---then the unquestioned rating leader. So CNN happily helped to make its audience aware of Fox and gradually lost ground to Fox in the Nielsens---when, finally, somebody at CNN wised up and cancelled the deal---but it was too late. Also, few of the program promos one sees on a broadcast TV network or cable channel highlighting its own upcoming shows come at the expense of paid advertising. These are simply additional clutter in their breaks and as such, they have no real time costs---even if such is claimed as an "expense" by the accountants. I do agree that promoting individual programs at a time when audiences are so fragmented and there are so many shows, specials, etc. that need help in this regard is a challenge. How it will be solved---if there is a solution---remains to be seen.
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Sean Doherty from Wurl, Inc., September 23, 2022 at 1:36 p.m.

nice summary Dave.
Thankfully, streaming has changed the world of viewer acquisition and retention since the Fox/CNN scenario 20 (?) years ago. Today, with services like Wurl's "Perform", content companies and streaming apps are running promo campaigns with exactly measurable results, paying only for success (pay for conversions, not impressions) and deciding the price they'll pay for each new viewer or increase in engagement or ...

Sean Doherty from Wurl, Inc., September 23, 2022 at 1:36 p.m.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 23, 2022 at 1:54 p.m.

One thought might be a revival of the old TV GUIDE concept---except only for streaming----providing the various services agreed to cooperate. Subscribers would get a daily online rundown of what's being promoted for each service---with a fair limit on the number of shows being highlited---plus a weekly catalog, organized by genre---of what's available in their libraries--- and, of course, there would paid tune-in promos as well as regular advertising---perhaps in daily articles of general interest. Could be a good business opportunity for someone---perhaps?

Phil Guarascio from PG Ventures LLC, September 23, 2022 at 3:55 p.m.

AI and targeted "reach" strategies will lead to the promise land of program sampling.