Networks look online to lure young viewers back to TV (DISCA, TWX, CBS, AMZN, NFLX, DIS)
Networks look online to lure young viewers back to TV
(DISCA, TWX, CBS, AMZN, NFLX, DIS)
By Jessica Toonkel Jun. 29, 2017, 12:52 PM
NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) - Discovery Communications
Inc and Time Warner Inc's Turner are taking the unusual step of streaming full
episodes of new shows online or on apps before they air on TV to lure younger
viewers in the face of slipping ratings.
Premium channels like CBS Corp's Showtime have done this
for years to entice new subscribers, but cable networks have not, fearing they
might cannibalize TV ratings.
But today viewers have many more choices as streaming
companies like Amazon.com Inc and Netflix Inc bring a year-round slate of new
shows on top of broadcast television.
As a result, networks need to do more to promote new
shows, according to Dave Morgan, head of advertising technology company
Simulmedia.
Previously, networks focused all marketing around a
show's premier, said Kevin Reilly, chief creative officer at Turner.
"Today, the entire first season is a marketing
vehicle," he said. "If I said that five years ago, people would have
said 'You're out of your mind'."
Over the past year, Turner put five premiers on Facebook
and Google's YouTube.
Discovery's true crime channel, Investigation Discovery
(ID), plans to put the first episode of at least five of its series on its app
for cable subscribers before they air on TV, said Kevin Bennett, general
manager of ID.
When college football season starts in August, Walt
Disney Co's sports network ESPN, which is struggling with declining
subscribers, will let online viewers watch 10 minutes of any game or show for
free on its app.
After 10 minutes, they will have to verify they are a
cable subscriber or sign up, Justin Connolly, executive vice president,
affiliate sales and marketing at ESPN, told Reuters.
EARLY SUCCESS?
By putting some episodes online for free, Turner faces
the added risk of upsetting its cable and satellite partners. Aware of that,
Turner has only selected certain shows to put online.
Last June, Turner's TNT got about 6 million viewers for
the first episode of its new family crime drama, "Animal Kingdom,"
which it streamed on Facebook and YouTube before it aired on TV. Turner said 16
percent of those online viewers - or about 960,000 people - came back to watch
the show on TV.
Turner believes that putting the premier online helped
the show to increase its share of younger viewers, between 18 and 49 years old,
from 899,000 at the show's television debut to 1.15 million by the final
episode.
"It might not build Nielsen ratings, but it builds
engagement," said Michael Engleman, executive vice president of
entertainment marketing at Turner, referring to the TV industry's leading
ratings firm.
ID has put the second episodes of some shows on its
Discovery GO app for cable subscribers immediately after the first episodes
aired on TV in a bid to drive people to its app and to create a buzz, Bennett
said.
Last Spring, Discovery streamed the second episode of its
miniseries about Casey Anthony, the Florida mom acquitted of killing her
two-year-old daughter, right after the first episode aired on TV.
When the episode aired on TV the next night, it was the
highest-rated second episode for ID ever on TV, Bennett said.
For Discovery, whether viewers watch its shows on its app
or on TV is not a key distinction. Discovery gets a 50-percent premium on ads
sold through the app since they are more targeted and viewers cannot skip ads,
said Paul Guyardo, chief commercial officer at Discovery.
Such tactics can help when Discovery begins negotiations
with its pay TV partners, he said.
"When we come up for renewals, we aren't just
providing a linear channel," Guyardo said. "That helps with renewals
and rate increases."
(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; editing by Anna Driver and
Bill Rigby)
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