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Tip #1736: Streaming Media – Not as Big As Thought

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #1736: Streaming Media – Not as Big As Thought

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Finally, the streaming world has ratings.

The Nielsen logo.

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This article, written by Dave Morgan, first appeared in MediaPost.com. This is a summary.

Last week, Nielsen unveiled the first true independent measurement of cross-platform viewing on TV, The Gauge, a panel-based, representative tracker of what 300+ million Americans are watching each month, broken out by linear TV (broadcast and cable), streaming and other (video games, DVDs, etc.).

Nielsen revealed that broadcast and cable still account for 64% of total TV viewing, with streaming only representing 26% of viewing — and Netflix, the dominant streamer, only at 6%.

No one described the disconnect between perception and reality better than CNN’s Brian Stelter, who said: “Streaming might take up three fourths of the media world’s attention, but right now it’s only one fourth of viewership time. Streaming might eventually cannibalize everything, but that day is a long way away.”

Incredibly, one of the stats in Nielsen’s report hasn’t gotten much attention, but everyone in the ad business hopefully caught it. A big chunk of the streaming viewing was on services with no or few ads: Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Hulu. So, for all of those marketers out there telling their media teams to shift 30% of their TV budgets to streaming video, you’re likely to be disappointed.

The ad inventory just doesn’t exist.

EXTRA CREDIT

The article linked above has more stats and additional detail.


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2 replies
  1. Loren
    Loren says:

    It’s like technologist Phil Hodgetts said years ago: “People want what they want when they want it, how they want it. No more Appointment TV.”

    Reply
    • Larry Jordan
      Larry Jordan says:

      Except, Loren, the results of the Nielsen study say just the opposite. 3/4 of all TV watching today is appointment TV. Streaming only accounts for 26% of all viewing across ALL streaming platforms.

      Larry

      Reply

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