Connections

The surging number of content titles and streaming video services have resulted in challenges for viewers who now spend 10.5 minutes per viewing session just trying to figure out what to watch, according to data and insights from Gracenote that are included in parent company Nielsen’s 2023 State of Play report, released Aug. 28th.

There were 1.9 million video titles available to viewers in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico and Germany in July 2021, according to data analysis by Gracenote, Nielsen’s content solutions business division.

That number had grown significantly, to 2.7 million titles, by June 2023, the company said.

What’s more, of the total title count, the vast majority of them – 86.7% – were available on streaming services, according to Gracenote.

“In just three short years, the amount of content available to TV viewers has grown by more than 1.1 million individual programs,” the report said, adding: “Combined with an explosion of streaming services, the video landscape has become vast in a very short amount of time.”

Streaming has been the dominant TV option in the US since November 2022, growing to account for 37.7% of TV usage in June 2023, the report said.

Meanwhile, “to tap into the bounty of streaming content, adoption of connected television (CTV) devices, including smart TVs, continues to rise,” the report noted.

From a monetisation standpoint, streaming content distribution has evolved from its ad-free, subscription-focused roots, according to Nielsen. Today, platforms and services are increasingly including advertising. In more recent cases, advertising has become the main go-to-market strategy.

“As ad-supported options become more prevalent, audiences—many of whom are scaling back on their paid subscriptions—are rallying,” the report said.

In the US, for example, subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) viewing had fallen to account for 49% of all streaming at the end of May 2023, while ad-supported VOD (AVOD) had grown to account for 26%, and MVPD/vMVPD streaming had grown to account for 15%.

Gracenote’s analysis also found that audiences now have almost 40,000 individual FAST channels, streaming providers and aggregators to select from.

Adding more context, Nielsen said new data from The Gauge revealed that streaming accounted for 38.7% of total TV usage in July, a new record high.

At the same time, traditional TV viewing across broadcast and cable dropped under 50% for the first time, Gracenote found.

However, the “wealth of available content and the proliferation of streaming choices has led to difficulties for viewers,” according to the company. When viewers couldn’t find something compelling to watch, one in five of them abandoned the viewing session and shifted to another activity entirely, the report said.

“The abundance of choice has put the audience in control like never before,” the report said. “But the expanding streaming landscape has become overwhelming for viewers. It’s taking longer for viewers to find content they’re interested in, and audiences know that if they don’t see something they like, a different option is just a click away. This reality highlights the importance of the user experience within individual services, especially amid the trend away from content exclusivity.”

As all industry players look to position themselves for success in the evolving streaming marketplace, the keys to audience engagement are increased personalisation and better user experience, Nielsen noted.

Those that leverage content metadata and connected IDs to present the most compelling programming and relevant advertising to the right viewers via merchandising, curation and data science can gain a competitive edge, according to the company.

Compounding the complexity involved with this surge in streaming content is the fact that many popular shows appear in multiple streaming catalogs, highlighting the industry’s pivot away from content exclusivity to broader distribution in search of improved monetisation, the company noted.

Better personalisation and user experience, meanwhile, have opened new opportunities for streamers amid overabundant program and platform choice, shifting content distribution strategies, according to the company.

“Content creators, distributors, streaming services and aggregators will benefit from a clear picture of the current streaming landscape presented in the report and actionable recommendations on how to differentiate their offerings under the existing market conditions,” the company said in announcing the report’s release.

Commenting on the findings, Filiz Bahmanpour, VP of product at Gracenote, said in a statement: “As it was during the age of broadcast television, content is the lifeblood of the digital, streaming-first media ecosystem. So, a clear understanding of content – where it’s available, what it’s about and whom it’s attracting – is more critical than ever.”