AVOD/Connected TV Ascendancy May Save Traditional TV
- by Wayne Friedman , June 10, 2021
Although TV revenue from new ad-supported VOD services will continue to sharply ramp up, the question is: Will it make up for losses over traditional TV advertising deals?
“Even though brand dollars continue to flow to TV despite lower available inventory, we believe ultimately the time will come when rising …
Wayne, one of the reasons for the growing shortage of "GRPs" for "traditional TV" is that these are based on the outdated 18-49 or its sister conglomerate audience guarantee" demo" 25-54--in both cases accounting for a minority of the average minute TV audience. So, of course, as these heavily duplicated umbrella groupings are switching more of their TV viewing time to streaming their "linear" footprint is shrinking. But what about the majority of TV's audience---those aged 50+? They are reducing their time spent but at a far reduced pace yet the sellers get no credit for such viewers and the GRPs they could represent.
There are several solutions to this problem. First, the sellers---especially cable---will probably increase their commercial loads so they represent 32-35% of their content time. That will generate more 18-49/25-54 GRPs for advertisers---and there are many---who can't be bothered about whether their commercials are seen. The second solution is to find a way to build the 50+ group into the GRP audience guarantee system so it counts along with the current metrics. Maybe go only adults 18+ or go with two "demos 18/49/25-54 and 50+--- so if the latter delivers you aren't penalized so heavily for under performence by the former.